The demand for community college education

This article describes a model of Community College (CC) enrollment which is tested using cross-sectional data for the 1969–1970 academic year. The sample consists of 126 relatively homogeneous CCs divided into sixty-two separate markets. Tuition, income, proximity of four-year schools, and the age of a CC are found to have significant influences on enrollment.An estimate is made of the marginal cost to a CC of attracting more students by lowering tuition.     

Does research productivity decline with age?

The research productivity of psychologists holding appointment in British universities was studied within a cross-sequential design. Publication rates in 1968–1970 and 1978–1980 were compared across groups differing in terms of chronological age and date of birth. At both times of measurement psychologists above 45 years of age published less frequently than younger psychologists. Psychologists who held appointment in 1980 as well as 1970 published less frequently in 1978–1980 than in 1968–1970, irrespective of their age in 1970. Although productivity dropped with age, there was considerable variability in output between younger and older psychologists. Further, a person's publication rate in 1978–1980 was better predicted by their past productivity (publication rate in 1968–1970) than by their age. These results are discussed in the context of factors that affect research productivity, as well as changes that will occur in the age distribution of British academics over the next 20 years.     

THE CHANGE FROM TRANSFER TO CAREER EDUCATION AT COMMUNITY COLLEGES IN THE 1970s

For most of the twentieth century, up until the 1970s, the transfer curriculum, which prepared two‐year students for continuing their education at a four‐year school, was dominant in the community college; the ratio of enrollment in transfer programs to enrollment in occupational or career programs varied only between 2:1 and 3:1. In the 1970s, a dramatic shift occurred. Students began abandoning the transfer curriculum for the career curriculum in record numbers, and fewer decided to transfer to four‐year schools. This phenomenon has been widely quoted as fact, yet little has been done to document it, with actual figures from individual states. This paper first presents difficulties posed by this area for the researcher. Second, it examines the rise of career education and the decline of transfer education on a state‐by‐state basis. Finally, it concludes with a call for future researchers to study the repercussions of this change on the community college as a whole.     

College majors and the knowledge content of jobs

College students select majors for a variety of reasons, including expected returns in the labor market. This paper demonstrates an empirical method linking a census of US degrees and fields of study with measures of the knowledge content of jobs. The study combines individual wage and employment data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) with ratings on 27 knowledge content areas from the Occupational Information Network (O^*NET), thus providing measures of the economy-wide knowledge content of jobs. Fields of study and corresponding BA degree data from the Digest of Education Statistics for 1976–1977 through 2001–2002 are linked to these 27 content areas. We find that the choice of college major is responsive to changes in the knowledge composition of jobs and, more problematically, the wage returns to types of knowledge. Women's degree responsiveness to knowledge content appears to be stronger than men's, but their response to wage returns is weak.     

Designing a decision-support system for enrollment management

Over the next two decades, effective enrollment management is going to be critical to the future of tuition/enrollment-dependent colleges and universities, especially in states where the number of high-school graduates is expected to decline by 30–40% (WICHE, 1984). This paper outlines the conceptual framework, design, and implementation plan for building a decision-support system (DSS) for enrollment management at the college level in a private, comprehensive university. It begins with a brief overview of the DSS as a concept, the computer-hardware environment, and the fourth-generation software tools used to implement the system (Briggs, 1982; Goetz, 1982; Moore and Greenwood, 1984). Research designs and application-development strategies are reviewed to illustrate the potential of the DSS approach to enrollment management.Paper presented at the Twenty-Fifth Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, Portland, April 28–May 1, 1985.     

The productivity of U.S. higher education: 1967–1977

The study examines changes in the productivity of U.S. colleges and universities in the provision of instruction from 1967–68 to 1976–77. Combining our data with that from June O'Neill's earlier study of the 1929–30 to 1966–67 period it is possible to observe productivity trends over a period of nearly fifty years. Our figures show declining output per unit of input from the late sixties to the late seventies, and we attribute the decline to an inability to adjust rapidly to changes in demand, the momemtum of the 1960s expansion programs, and a dramatic decline in external funding of research.     

Changes in intellectual property statutes and policies at a public university: Revising the terms of professional labor

In this paper, we look at the way the state has helped shape the climate for the commercialization of science in a public university, and at how this has shaped the terms of professional labor for faculty. We examine patent policies of a public research university and of its Board of Regents, and the relevant state statutes from 1969–1989. Policies and statutes moved from an ideology that defined the public interest as best served by shielding public entities from involvement in the market, to one that saw the public interest as best served by public organizations' involvement in commercial activities. Claims to the ownership and rewards of intellectual property shifted dramatically in that time, from faculty owning their products and time to complete ownership by the institution. The contract between the university and faculty became increasingly formalized and specified. We believe that such developments augur significant changes in professional labor and in the relationship between the state and higher education. Such changes can best be understood from a post-structuralist perspective that moves beyond the structural dichotomies of public and private, state and higher education administrator and professional, and points to new forms of organization and of professional stratification and interest formation.Despite the changes in intellectual property policies at our university, one of the ongoing terms of our joint professional labor is that we share equally in the research and writing of our work products, which lack commercial relevance but not, perhaps, some value.     

A classification of child abuse and its relation to treatment and prognosis

This paper is based on five years' clinical experience of assessing parents who injure their children. During this time it has become obvious that there is a complex variety, not only of parental and paediatric pathology, but also of response to treatment. “Abuse of children is not a disease entity but a pattern of behaviour and like all such patterns it has a multiplicity of paths by which it is reached” (Scott 1977).There is therefore a great need to evolve a way of breaking down the large psychiatrically heterogenous group into smaller groups, who not only share certain characteristics, but who have some predictive value in terms of treatment and prognosis. This has become particularly important as the number of referrals are rising and the spectrum is widening. We are not only seeing larger numbers of less severely injured children, but also many more less conspicuously abnormal parents. (N.S.P.C.C. Battered Child Research Department reports 1969–1977).     

The merits of a longer school day

This paper presents results of an empirical study of the effects of increasing the amount of math and reading instruction offered to third through sixth grade students. The data come from a nationwide random sample for the 1976–1977 school year. While blacks and Hispanics received significantly greater hours of instruction than whites, all groups experienced diminishing returns at the observed amounts of instruction. In nearly all cases there appeared to be little benefit expected from a further increase in the amount of math and reading instruction offered per day.     

GPA,GMAT, and SCALE: A method for quantification of admissions criteria

Multiple regression analysis is used to establish a scale, measuring involvement in campus activities, work experience, technical background, references, and goals. This scale is then tested to see whether it improves the prediction of success in school. For graduate business students, previous studies have shown a coefficient of determination .14 when both GMAT score and grade point average are used. Introduction of the scale raises the coefficient to .19 for the 1976–1977 graduate class. Appropriate predictive cross-validation techniques indicate that the regression is validated on data from the 1980–1981 academic year. Using standard statistical computer software, any school can choose variables, experimentally build a scale, and test its predictive value. This type of scale helps to integrate much of the miscellaneous information collected on the standard college and graduate school application.     

The economic impact of nonresident students on West Virginia's economy

This paper describes a cost-benefit analysis of the impact of nonresident higher education students on the economy of West Virginia during the academic year 1985–86. During that year, the 10,091 FTE nonresident students enrolled in higher education institutions in West Virginia contributed to the state economy an estimated $72,182,000 through tuition and fees, living expenses, and travel expenses of parents and friends. The $72,182,000 flowing through the state's economy generated $86,618,318 in direct and indirect financial benefit to the state, while the state allocation attributed to the education of these nonresident students was $28,668,537. This return on investment, a benefit to cost ratio of 3.02, represents the net economic impact on West Virginia's state and local economies associated with higher education's nonresident enrollment in 1985–86. The ratio suggests that for each one dollar invested by the state in non-resident students, the state realized a return of $3.02 over the period of one academic year.Presented at the Twenty-Seventh Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, Kansas City, May 1987.     

我国房产税改革若干问题的思考

房产税属于财产税,具有调节财富差距的功能。各国的房产税都是地方税种,并且在多数国家是地方的主体税种,是地方财政收入的主要来源之一。然而,在我国,种种迹象表明现行房产税税制与当前经济和社会实际已经不相适应,而这种不适应在很大程度上制约了地方政府的财政收入,间接地造成地方政府不能很好地履行政府职能。为此,扩大征税范围、在税基计算中统一计税依据、实行差别税率、征收“空置住宅税”等,可以对进一步完善房产税税制、完善地方税收体系、发挥税收对财富差距的调节功能、缓解地方的财政压力、推进我国税制结构的优化、促进我国服务型政府的建设起到一定的作用。     

Policy discourses and changing practice: Diversity and the university-college

This study reports the results of research with respect to policy and diversity, as part of a larger case study of a Canadian university-college. The study details an examination of policy discourses as a vehicle for institutional change and provides insights into the everyday experiences of educators, their perspectives on policy and change, and the contested territory of diversity (i.e.,race, gender, class, disability,and sexual orientation) in an institution. The paper begins by considering the university-college and the context of the college and institute system in Canada. The paper briefly reviews state policy and the context that state public policy provides in principles of valuing diversity. Policy discourses were generated from the narratives of educators, from an institutional committee and from ‘outsiders’ to committee processes and to the institutional culture. Drawing from narrative auto/biographies (Gluck, S.B. and Patai, D., Women’s Words: the Feminist Practice of Oral History. London: Routledge, 1991; Stanley, L., The Auto/biographical I. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1992; West, L., Beyond Fragments. London: Taylor and Francis, 1996), policy stories are presented which illuminate the contention surrounding policy, practice and institutional change. A discourse of fairness is discussed in relation to hiring practices and how the perception of fairness actually contributes to the practice of discrimination. Discursive power relations (Foucault, M., Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972–1977. London: Harvester Press, 1980; Smith, D., The Conceptual Practices of Power. Toronto: University of Toronto, 1990) are considered in interpreting these stories and reveal the complex, competing forces affecting individuals engaged in the change process. The paper concludes by identifying a number of factors that contribute to the hindrance and advancement of the goals of diversity within an educational institution.     

Team teaching of the multidisciplinary approach

If the multidisciplinary approach is to be an important element in the care of abused/neglected children and their families, professionals and para-professionals will need to learn how to function within its context. This paper has described one innovative way of teaching this approach. The technique described seems to have been successful by several measurable standards. The elements which seem to have had a positive contribution to this success are: 1) the use of a multidisciplinary planning group and faculty which was a multidisciplinary task-oriented group itself; 2) a heterogeneous group of students; 3) the frequent presentation of multidisciplinary role models; 4) varied teaching techniques which stressed classroom interaction, roleplay, and field visits. The course approval has been renewed and will be offered again in the 1976–1977 academic year.     

Relative academic performance of college transfer students at The University of Calgary

This paper compares academic achievement of The University of Calgary undergraduate population with that of transfer students from Alberta community colleges for the four academic years 1968–1972. The comparison is made using four measures: percentage distributions of student grade point averages, percentage distributions of grades, course grade point averages, and withdrawals. The measures were taken along several dimensions, including faculty of student registration, year of student academic program, and academic discipline and level of courses taken. Transferring students do not succeed academically as well as the total university student population. For example, in 1971/72 the average grade points achieved in all courses was 2.49, while the college transfer student subset achieved only 2.33. The corresponding figures for 1970/71 were 2.45 versus 2.24; for 1969/70, 2.41 versus 2.23; and for 1968/69, 2.38 versus 2.16.     

The counseling needs of foreign students

This paper reports the findings of three studies of the counseling needs of international students at a medium sized University in the Midwestern region of USA. The studies were conducted over a period of five years (1977–83), and provide an historical perspective on the changes in student needs as well as in the programs designed to respond to these needs.     

Diversifying secondary school curricula in developing countries: An implementation history and some policy options

This paper describes the history of the diversified curriculum debate. The first section briefly refers to the precedents for such discussions during the colonial era. A second section describes the institutional environment behind the beginning of bilateral and multilateral assistance to diversified curricula in 1960. The third section summarizes the changes in thinking about diversified curricula which have occurred in the World Bank over the last 20 years. This third section, itself, is divided into three subsections: (i) the original World Bank rationales for diversified education (1960–1970); (ii) the implementation history (1970–1980); and (iii) post-1980 strategies, including financing the research whose results are discussed at this meeting. The paper concludes with a fourth section which refers to the options on diversified education ahead.     

The New Norm: Community Colleges to Deal with Recessionary Fallout

Since the beginning of the Great Recession, many community colleges have experienced significant declines in state revenue, increases in enrollment, higher tuition, and flat or declining state student aid. These conditions have also occurred in an environment of heightened accountability with pressure to advance a student success agenda and to meet workforce training needs. Findings from the annual survey of state community college directors conducted by the Education Policy Center at the University of Alabama, in partnership with Iowa State University and The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, show that the majority of state directors feel states are moving toward a privatized model of higher education and that structural deficits exist in state budgets disadvantaging community colleges. The concern is that these and other related findings demonstrate a situation that may not improve as the nation climbs out of recession; this situation is creating a new norm in community college funding.     

Effects of key state policies on private colleges and universities: sustaining private-sector capacity in the face of the higher education access challenge

The relationship between key state policy variables — (1) relative (private–public) tuition prices, (2) state student-aid funding, and (3) public institution density — and the competitive position of private colleges and universities is examined. Elite private schools are found to be nearly impervious to state policy. Large and moderately selective private institutions are adversely affected by public institution density and low public prices. Such prices divert students who would otherwise prefer these private institutions to similar public schools. State student aid funding most affects the enrollment market shares of the small, low-selectivity private colleges enrolling the greatest proportions of minority and modest-income students. The findings suggest state policies in this era of strong demand for higher education and constrained public sector capacity should use price signals (student aid and public institution pricing) to encourage students to consider seriously whether private higher education might serve their needs as well as or better than public institutions.     

Replication of a path analysis model of secondary physics enrollments: 20 years later

The percentage of enrollment in physics (PEP) at the secondary level in the United States has been approximately 20% for the past few decades. In an attempt to isolate variables related to physics enrollment. Bryant (1977) conducted a path analysis model of secondary physics enrollment in New York State. This present study is a replication and extension of the study conducted by Bryant. Current data were used to verify the Bryant model and construct models with data available since Bryant's work. Data gathered by the New York State Education Department for the 1990–1991 school year were used. The source of this data included surveys completed by teachers and administrators on student characteristics and school facilities. A data analysis similar to Bryant's was conducted to determine whether the relationships between a set of predictor variables and physics enrollment had changed in the past 20 years. The findings indicate that there has been no change in the set of variables related to physics enrollment. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.