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Description
Over the years from 2009 to 2017, the people of Arizona witnessed the state consistently defunding the schools, its students academically underperforming, and as a result, the poverty achievement gap widening. Even with the efforts in recent years to re-invest in education, Arizona’s education funding falls below its level at 2008 and the national average. Among Arizona’s funding sources is the Public School Tax Credit, a unique legislation for the state that allows for taxpayers to donate money to certain programs at Arizona public schools and reduce their state income tax liability dollar-for-dollar. Because of the already severe achievement gap in Arizona, this funding source which relies on surrounding neighborhoods’ income raises the concern that, instead of helping Arizona students, it is exacerbating the existing achievement gap. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between income and donations received by schools to determine the validity of this concern. To ensure a comprehensive examination of the relationship between income and donations received, regression tests are run on both the aggregate level and individual level. The tests find that, although income does have a statistically significant correlation with the donations received, it is only positive for the effect of total income on total donations, negative for the effect of average income per return on average donation per donor, and negative for average income per return on total donations. The results imply that to garner high donations, it matters less to be located in a high-earning neighborhood and more important to be located in a moderate-earning neighborhood with a lot of people donating using this credit. Therefore, the concern of income’s effect on donations is valid, but perhaps not in the straightforward way that we would expect.
ContributorsChen, Vivian Young (Author) / Kenchington, David (Thesis director) / Brown, Jenny (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
Description
The state of Arizona has one of the lowest high school graduation rates in the country.
Therefore, many different resources and intervention programs are designed to help prevent
at-risk students from dropping out and making sure they graduate on time - typically within four
years. However, one extremely underutilized but highly effective resource for intervention is
peer tutoring. Peer tutoring is a well-known method of active learning within the classroom
where students assist one another, but it is rarely used systematically as a way to support at-risk
students with the goal of increasing academic performance to decrease the number of dropouts.
This thesis and creative project takes a look at the inception, development, and growth of
PeerSquared, Inc., a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation, founded by chief executive officer,
Michael Wang, on his journey to help Arizona high schools build and scale sustainable and
systematically-integrated, 1-on-1, peer-to-peer tutoring programs. This paper will account
Michael’s motivation for this mission and the growth of PeerSquared from its inception in
November 2018 up to August 2020. For context, the COVID-19 pandemic began noticeably
impacting Arizona in late-March 2020 when schools decided to not resume in-person school in
favor of distance learning resulting in a necessary pivot for PeerSquared.
Therefore, many different resources and intervention programs are designed to help prevent
at-risk students from dropping out and making sure they graduate on time - typically within four
years. However, one extremely underutilized but highly effective resource for intervention is
peer tutoring. Peer tutoring is a well-known method of active learning within the classroom
where students assist one another, but it is rarely used systematically as a way to support at-risk
students with the goal of increasing academic performance to decrease the number of dropouts.
This thesis and creative project takes a look at the inception, development, and growth of
PeerSquared, Inc., a Delaware Public Benefit Corporation, founded by chief executive officer,
Michael Wang, on his journey to help Arizona high schools build and scale sustainable and
systematically-integrated, 1-on-1, peer-to-peer tutoring programs. This paper will account
Michael’s motivation for this mission and the growth of PeerSquared from its inception in
November 2018 up to August 2020. For context, the COVID-19 pandemic began noticeably
impacting Arizona in late-March 2020 when schools decided to not resume in-person school in
favor of distance learning resulting in a necessary pivot for PeerSquared.
ContributorsWang, Michael Minze (Author) / Lin, Elva S. Y. (Thesis director) / Barnard, Wendy (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12
Description
In baseball, a starting pitcher has historically been a more durable pitcher capable of lasting long into games without tiring. For the entire history of Major League Baseball, these pitchers have been expected to last 6 innings or more into a game before being replaced. However, with the advances in statistics and sabermetrics and their gradual acceptance by professional coaches, the role of the starting pitcher is beginning to change. Teams are experimenting with having starters being replaced quicker, challenging the traditional role of the starting pitcher. The goal of this study is to determine if there is an exact point at which a team would benefit from replacing a starting or relief pitcher with another pitcher using statistical analyses. We will use logistic stepwise regression to predict the likelihood of a team scoring a run if a substitution is made or not made given the current game situation.
ContributorsBuckley, Nicholas J (Author) / Samara, Marko (Thesis director) / Lanchier, Nicolas (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
The objective of this paper is to find and describe trends in the fast Fourier transformed accelerometer data that can be used to predict the mechanical failure of large vacuum pumps used in industrial settings, such as providing drinking water. Using three-dimensional plots of the data, this paper suggests how a model can be developed to predict the mechanical failure of vacuum pumps.
ContributorsHalver, Grant (Author) / Taylor, Tom (Thesis director) / Konstantinos, Tsakalis (Committee member) / Fricks, John (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
Schools across the United States have been subject to a rise in violent incidents since 2013. Reading about school shootings, racist acts, and violent demonstrations in schools has unfortunately become commonplace, which is contributing to inequitable outcomes for some student populations. These equity gaps have triggered demands for more equitable solutions in schools, a responsibility that falls on the shoulders of stakeholders like school governing boards, principals, and parents.
Chandler Unified School District (CUSD), a large school system in Arizona that serves 45,000 students from preschool through high school, has been unable to escape similar structural and frictional inequities within its schools. One instance of a racially charged student performance at Santan Middle School motivated CUSD to take a more immediate look at equity in the district. It is during this response that our team of New Venture Group consultants engaged with Matt Strom, Assistant Superintendent of CUSD, in analyzing the important question of “how CUSD can take steps towards closing equity gaps within the district?”
CUSD defines an equity gap as any difference in student opportunity, achievement, discipline, attendance, etc. contributable to a student’s ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic status. Currently, certain student populations in CUSD perform vastly different academically and receive different opportunities within schools, but as was our problem statement, CUSD is aiming to reduce (and eventually close) these gaps.
Our team approached this problem in three phases: (1) diagnosis, (2) solution creation, and (3) prevention. In phase one, we created a dashboard to help principals easily and visually identify gaps by toggling parameters on the dashboard. Phase two focused on the generation of recommendations for closing gaps. To achieve this goal, a knowledge of successful gap-closing strategies will be paired with the dashboard. In our final phase, the team of consultants created a principal scorecard to ensure equity remains a priority for principals.
Chandler Unified School District (CUSD), a large school system in Arizona that serves 45,000 students from preschool through high school, has been unable to escape similar structural and frictional inequities within its schools. One instance of a racially charged student performance at Santan Middle School motivated CUSD to take a more immediate look at equity in the district. It is during this response that our team of New Venture Group consultants engaged with Matt Strom, Assistant Superintendent of CUSD, in analyzing the important question of “how CUSD can take steps towards closing equity gaps within the district?”
CUSD defines an equity gap as any difference in student opportunity, achievement, discipline, attendance, etc. contributable to a student’s ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic status. Currently, certain student populations in CUSD perform vastly different academically and receive different opportunities within schools, but as was our problem statement, CUSD is aiming to reduce (and eventually close) these gaps.
Our team approached this problem in three phases: (1) diagnosis, (2) solution creation, and (3) prevention. In phase one, we created a dashboard to help principals easily and visually identify gaps by toggling parameters on the dashboard. Phase two focused on the generation of recommendations for closing gaps. To achieve this goal, a knowledge of successful gap-closing strategies will be paired with the dashboard. In our final phase, the team of consultants created a principal scorecard to ensure equity remains a priority for principals.
ContributorsFerrara, Justin Christopher (Co-author) / Lee, Cynthia (Co-author) / Weston, Joshua (Co-author) / Licon, Wendell (Thesis director) / Strom, Matthew (Committee member) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-12
Description
FastStat is a responsive website designed to work on any handheld, laptop, or desktop device. It serves as a first step into statistical calculations, educating the user on the basics of statistical analysis, and guiding them as they perform analyses of their own using built-in calculators. The calculators available can perform z tests, t tests, chi square tests, and analysis of variance tests to determine significant characteristics of the user's data. Outputted data includes means, standard deviations, significance levels, applicable statistics, and worded results indicating the outcome of the performed test. With its clean design, FastStat directs the user in an intuitive manner to fill in the information needed, giving clear indications of what types of values are needed where and flagging descriptive error messages if any inputted values are incorrect. FastStat also implements a halt to calculations if any errors are found, which saves time by avoiding impossible calculations. Once complete, FastStat outputs a variety of information of use to the user in a clearly labeled manner. The calculators are designed in such a way that the user will know what information they will get out of the calculator before performing any calculations at all. Aside from the calculators, FastStat includes introductory pages designed to get users familiar with common statistical terms and the associated tests, solidifying its purpose as an introductory tool. All tests are described by their typical uses, necessary inputs, calculated outputs, and extra notes of importance. Many terms are defined for the purpose of statistics, complete with examples to help educate the user on the concepts. With the information available, even the newest statistician can learn and begin performing tests almost immediately.
ContributorsBroin, Demetri Evan (Author) / Squire, Susan (Thesis director) / Samara, Marko (Committee member) / Graphic Information Technology (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
Exchange traded funds (ETFs) in many ways are similar to more traditional closed-end mutual funds, although thee differ in a crucial way. ETFs rely on a creation and redemption feature to achieve their functionality and this mechanism is designed to minimize the deviations that occur between the ETF’s listed price and the net asset value of the ETF’s underlying assets. However while this does cause ETF deviations to be generally lower than their mutual fund counterparts, as our paper explores this process does not eliminate these deviations completely. This article builds off an earlier paper by Engle and Sarkar (2006) that investigates these properties of premiums (discounts) of ETFs from their fair market value. And looks to see if these premia have changed in the last 10 years. Our paper then diverges from the original and takes a deeper look into the standard deviations of these premia specifically.
Our findings show that over 70% of an ETFs standard deviation of premia can be explained through a linear combination consisting of two variables: a categorical (Domestic[US], Developed, Emerging) and a discrete variable (time-difference from US). This paper also finds that more traditional metrics such as market cap, ETF price volatility, and even 3rd party market indicators such as the economic freedom index and investment freedom index are insignificant predictors of an ETFs standard deviation of premia when combined with the categorical variable. These findings differ somewhat from existing literature which indicate that these factors should have a significant impact on the predictive ability of an ETFs standard deviation of premia.
Our findings show that over 70% of an ETFs standard deviation of premia can be explained through a linear combination consisting of two variables: a categorical (Domestic[US], Developed, Emerging) and a discrete variable (time-difference from US). This paper also finds that more traditional metrics such as market cap, ETF price volatility, and even 3rd party market indicators such as the economic freedom index and investment freedom index are insignificant predictors of an ETFs standard deviation of premia when combined with the categorical variable. These findings differ somewhat from existing literature which indicate that these factors should have a significant impact on the predictive ability of an ETFs standard deviation of premia.
ContributorsZhang, Jingbo (Co-author, Co-author) / Henning, Thomas (Co-author) / Simonson, Mark (Thesis director) / Licon, L. Wendell (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
Description
For my thesis, I chose to write a children’s book on financial education. The purpose of the book is to introduce financial terms such as savings, loans, and opportunity cost into a child’s life. The goal of the book is to inspire young individuals to start having open discussions about their finances and what these terms mean as well as how it applies to their daily lives.
The inspiration of the book came from my personal upbringing. I was born and raised in Mesa, Arizona, where I would see title loans businesses in every street corner. Many close family friends grew a dependency on these loans. As I grew older, I became aware of the long-term effects these businesses had on these families and I became inspired to make a change.
My book is meant to introduce simple financial terms into a child’s life with the hopes that they will begin to converse with family and friends about these terms. My book specifically incorporates the terms: loans, opportunity costs, savings, and affordability. These four topics were chosen through surveying a high school class by gathering information such as what they know, how much they know, and what they would like to learn more about. The intended audience would be students reading at a 3rd grade reading level. This grade level is ideal for my book based off information found on the Arizona Department of Education’s website. Final revisions were done with the help of my committee as well as through feedback received from children.
The book itself is 31 pages long with illustrations on every page. The illustrations consist of photographs and drawings. The drawings were purposely placed, roughly, and without color, on the photographs to symbolize the rough patches in life in yet a colorful world.
Proposition 1184 plays a major role in the future of my book. Proposition 1184 is
currently working its way through the Arizona legislature and would require all high school students to take a class on financial basics, replacing the current economics class requirement. I plan to continue working with Mesa Public Schools to get my book, or a similar project, incorporated into the Mesa Public Schools curriculum. I envision the book starting discussions related to financial topics which will in turn familiarize children with these terms’ definitions and begin the movement of financial education in Arizona.
The inspiration of the book came from my personal upbringing. I was born and raised in Mesa, Arizona, where I would see title loans businesses in every street corner. Many close family friends grew a dependency on these loans. As I grew older, I became aware of the long-term effects these businesses had on these families and I became inspired to make a change.
My book is meant to introduce simple financial terms into a child’s life with the hopes that they will begin to converse with family and friends about these terms. My book specifically incorporates the terms: loans, opportunity costs, savings, and affordability. These four topics were chosen through surveying a high school class by gathering information such as what they know, how much they know, and what they would like to learn more about. The intended audience would be students reading at a 3rd grade reading level. This grade level is ideal for my book based off information found on the Arizona Department of Education’s website. Final revisions were done with the help of my committee as well as through feedback received from children.
The book itself is 31 pages long with illustrations on every page. The illustrations consist of photographs and drawings. The drawings were purposely placed, roughly, and without color, on the photographs to symbolize the rough patches in life in yet a colorful world.
Proposition 1184 plays a major role in the future of my book. Proposition 1184 is
currently working its way through the Arizona legislature and would require all high school students to take a class on financial basics, replacing the current economics class requirement. I plan to continue working with Mesa Public Schools to get my book, or a similar project, incorporated into the Mesa Public Schools curriculum. I envision the book starting discussions related to financial topics which will in turn familiarize children with these terms’ definitions and begin the movement of financial education in Arizona.
ContributorsMorales, Irma Lucero (Author) / Desch, Tim (Thesis director) / Wolfe, Mindy (Committee member) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05
What is a “Good Economy”? Analysis of Economic Metrics & Their Political Impact on the United States
Description
The goal of this research paper is to analyze how we define economic success and how that affects large corporations and consumers. This paper asks the questions: What do we define as a good economy? What metrics are currently utilized? And how do perceptions of a good economy influence politics? Overall, the research seeks to identify common economic and financial fallacies held by the average citizen and offer alternative methods of how socio-economic information is presented to the consumers. Consumers play a major role in the market, and the information they receive has a considerable impact on their behaviors. Determining why the present economic analysis is used is the first step in finding ways to improve the system. Observing past political and economic trends and relating them to current issues is necessary for finding future solutions.
ContributorsTosca, Carlos (Author) / Brian, Jennifer (Thesis director) / Sadusky, Brian (Committee member) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Department of Finance (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
Cryptocurrencies have become one of the most fascinating forms of currency and economics due to their fluctuating values and lack of centralization. This project attempts to use machine learning methods to effectively model in-sample data for Bitcoin and Ethereum using rule induction methods. The dataset is cleaned by removing entries with missing data. The new column is created to measure price difference to create a more accurate analysis on the change in price. Eight relevant variables are selected using cross validation: the total number of bitcoins, the total size of the blockchains, the hash rate, mining difficulty, revenue from mining, transaction fees, the cost of transactions and the estimated transaction volume. The in-sample data is modeled using a simple tree fit, first with one variable and then with eight. Using all eight variables, the in-sample model and data have a correlation of 0.6822657. The in-sample model is improved by first applying bootstrap aggregation (also known as bagging) to fit 400 decision trees to the in-sample data using one variable. Then the random forests technique is applied to the data using all eight variables. This results in a correlation between the model and data of 9.9443413. The random forests technique is then applied to an Ethereum dataset, resulting in a correlation of 9.6904798. Finally, an out-of-sample model is created for Bitcoin and Ethereum using random forests, with a benchmark correlation of 0.03 for financial data. The correlation between the training model and the testing data for Bitcoin was 0.06957639, while for Ethereum the correlation was -0.171125. In conclusion, it is confirmed that cryptocurrencies can have accurate in-sample models by applying the random forests method to a dataset. However, out-of-sample modeling is more difficult, but in some cases better than typical forms of financial data. It should also be noted that cryptocurrency data has similar properties to other related financial datasets, realizing future potential for system modeling for cryptocurrency within the financial world.
ContributorsBrowning, Jacob Christian (Author) / Meuth, Ryan (Thesis director) / Jones, Donald (Committee member) / McCulloch, Robert (Committee member) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05