Teachers in Schools with Low Socioeconomic Composition: Are They Really that Different?

This article aims to assess whether differences in teacher characteristics vary with differences in socioeconomic compositions of schools. We conducted correlation analyses on administrative data from the French-speaking education system in Belgium. This database regroups more than 20,000 teachers in 1,630 elementary schools. We selected indicators to measure the link between schools’ socioeconomic composition and a set of dimensions of teachers’ profile such as experience, job security, and stability. The results confirm that some of these dimensions are linked to the school composition. The findings highlight the relevance of considering segmentation of the school market when studying the topic.     

Socioeconomic Gaps in Academic Achievement Within Schools: Are They Consistent Across Subject Areas?

Few studies have examined the correlates of within-school socioeconomic gaps in academic achievement corresponding to subject areas across schools. This study addressed this limitation with data from the New Brunswick School Climate Study (N = 6,883 students from 148 schools) which contained measures on academic achievement in four subject areas (mathematics, science, reading, and writing) as well as student and school background characteristics. Results of multivariate, multilevel analyses showed that within-school socioeconomic gaps were similar between reading and writing as well as between mathematics and science. Furthermore, the interrelationships of within-school socioeconomic gaps in academic achievement corresponding to the four subject areas across schools were not much influenced by student background characteristics (gender, Native status, number of parents, and number of siblings) and characteristics of school context and climate (school size, school mean SES, disciplinary climate, academic expectation, and parental involvement).     

What Are They?

1.Meow,meow,Icancatchamouseinthedark.2.Jiou,jiou,Icanflyupanddowninthesky.3.Oo,oo,Icancrow(鸣叫)earlyinthemorning.4.Quack,quack,Icanswimquicklyonthelake.5.Wolf,wolf,Icanlookafterthehome.6.Moo,moo,Icanplough(用犁耕地)hardonthefarm.Guess,guess,whatarethey?征答案:reKeys:1.cat(猫)2.bird(鸟)3.cock(公鸡)4.duck(鸭子)5.dog(狗)6.cow(牛)What Are They?@逍遥…     

Who Are They?

小动物们在排队做操。大象教师要找两个小朋友,请你帮他找出来吧!A.He is the king of theforest.He wears a cap.B.He is in front of Dogand behind Panda.A is_____.B is______.上期答案:Daniel will go to the ciname.Mark will go to the post office.Mum will go shopping.Henry will go to school.Rose will go to hospital.小画家画了一幅画,但是谁也不知道他画的是什么,请按照他的要求把画涂上颜色,并回答问题。1is black.2is red.3is yellow.4is blue.5is pink.6is green.7is brownQuestions:1.What are they in thepictur…     

How Rich Are They?

贾斯汀·汀布莱克 23岁★贾斯汀2003年大约净赚2470万美金。★他的首张个人专辑《Justified》大卖300万张。★有报道说他因为演唱了麦当劳广告主题曲《I'm Lovin' It》而获利600万美金。★这位超级车迷拥有十几辆车子,包括两辆凯迪拉克 Escalade、三辆梅塞德斯、一辆奥迪 TT、一辆价值8万美金的 Dodge Viper 以及五辆酷炫摩托车!     

The Young Scholars from the “Hit Parade”: Where Are They Now?

The current study provides an updated analysis of the scholars who were originally identified as the top young scholars as Assistant Professors identified in earlier literature. Specifically, analysis in this study considers the publication productivity of these scholars over their entire academic career in general and by incorporating five more years of publication productivity data since the original identification and analysis of this cohort. Results from a series of publication productivity metrics including total publications, total citations, h index, and i10 index (and standardized versions of these metrics) reveal that Wesley Jennings is the number one ranked scholar in the original and updated analysis and that Allison Redlich, Abigail Fagan, Christopher Sullivan, and Chris Gibson round out the top five scholars. Study limitations and implications are also discussed.     

Validating NSSE Against Student Outcomes: Are They Related?

While there exist many examples of institutional use of the results of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), there is a relative paucity of research explicitly linking student outcomes to responses on the survey. A major Doctoral-Extensive institution in the Southeast recently conducted a large-scale implementation of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). We have linked multiple years of NSSE responses to several student outcomes: freshman retention, GPA, pursuit of graduate education, and employment outcome upon commencement/degree conferral. Our research finds minimal explanatory power in the NSSE benchmarks for these outcomes. A statistically derived model from the individual NSSE items shows greater promise, although there are difficulties in replicating the model for previous student cohorts.

Family Literacy Programs: Where Have They Come from and Where Are They Going?

Family literacy programs in North America and the United Kingdom have enjoyed widespread public and political support. Thousands of initiatives following a variety of models currently operate under the spectrum of family literacy programs. In edthis paper, the influence of learning theories, the research on children’s early literacy development, and the sociopolitical context with gave rise to the intervention movement, will be reviewed with respect to their impact on current models of family literacy programs. The research on program evaluation is also considered, and is related to current practice and future directions in family literacy programming.     

Prison Inmates' Educational Motives: Are They Pushed or Pulled?

The aim of the present study was to examine inmates' educational motives. The participants were 467 inmates who attended education in Norwegian prisons. Three motive categories were identified: “To prepare for life upon release” (Factor 1), “social reasons and reasons unique to the prison context” (Factor 2), and “to acquire knowledge and skills” (Factor 3). Factor 1 explained more of the variance than the sum of the other factors, and educational level was not related to scores on this first factor. Inmates with long sentences were more likely than those with short sentences to start an education in prison to prepare for life upon release. Inmates with low education scored significantly higher on Factor 2 than those with high education, but significantly lower on Factor 3 than the latter group.     

How Old Are They

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Points of View: A Survey of Survey Courses: Are They Effective?

Note from the EditorsPoints of View (POV) addresses issues faced by many people within the life science education community. Cell Biology Education (CBE) publishes the POV Feature to present two or more opinions published in tandem on a common topic. We consider POVs to be “Op-Ed” pieces designed to stimulate thought and dialogue on significant educational issues. Each author had the opportunity to revise or add to his/her POV after reading drafts of the other''s POV.In this issue, we ask the question, “Are survey courses still viable for introductory biology?” The POV question is related to the ones asked by the National Research Council in the recent feature by Jay Labov (www.cellbioed.org/articles/vol3no4/article.cfm?articleID=132) and continues to be a subject of debate by many science departments, not just biology. Often the discussion is split not only by perceived value of the survey course, but also by the size of the institution. Therefore, we present four POVs, plus a framing POV to set the tone. The overview was written by Arri Eisen, who is a senior lecturer in Emory University''s Biology Department and the director of the Program in Science & Society. Representing the Anti-Survey, Large University is Janet M. Batzli, Associate Director of the nontraditional Biology Core Curriculum at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The Anti-Survey, Small College perspective is presented by David Becker, who is an Associate Professor and Magdalena R. and John P. Dexter Professor of Botany in the Department of Biology at Pomona College. Presenting the Pro-Survey, Large University perspective is Douglas M. Fambrough, Professor of Biology at The Johns Hopkins Department of Biology and Scientific Director of the Searle Scholars Program. Finally, the Pro-Survey, Small College POV was coauthored by Mary Lee Ledbetter and A. Malcolm Campbell. Ledbetter is a Professor of Biology at College of the Holy Cross and a 2003 NSF Director''s Award recipient. Campbell is an Associate Professor of Biology at Davidson College and a co-Editor-in-Chief of CBE. Readers are encouraged to compare the authors'' perspectives and share their thoughts and reactions using the online discussion forum hosted by CBE at http://www.cellbioed.org/discussion/public/main.cfm.

• Cell Biol Educ. 2005 Summer; 4(2): 123–137.
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• Running out of Hands: Designing a Modern Biology Curriculum

Cell Biol Educ. 2005 Summer; 4(2): 123–124. doi:  10.1187/cbe.05-01-0055

Running out of Hands: Designing a Modern Biology Curriculum

Arri EisenProgram in Science & Society Department of Biology Emory University Atlanta, GA 30322Author information ? Copyright and License information ?Copyright The American Society for Cell BiologyWhat makes a good teacher? What makes a good curriculum? While these two questions are intimately related, they are different. And when I think about them, I find myself feeling like Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof dealing with a perplexing problem—that is, I quickly run out of hands. On the one hand, when I reflect on my best teachers, I can''t separate the person from what the person taught me. On the other hand, when designing a curriculum, we want to figure out what to teach and how, and leave out the person, because 1) personnel changes, 2) teachers have different styles, and 3) a good curriculum allows for these different styles. On the other hand, while personal style overlaps with pedagogy—the “how” of teaching—they are different. On the other hand… I have run out of hands.Let''s simplify a little and just discuss key questions and issues that should be addressed in designing a rigorous biology curriculum. Since introductory courses set the tone, standards, and expectations for the curriculum, we''ll focus our discussion on introductory courses as a model for thinking about the entire curriculum. Because this is an “overview” for a series of Points of View articles (POVs), I can cheat some and not give you any answers (see the four POVs that follow for some possible answers). Instead, I''ll sneak into a discussion of these key questions and issues, which I''ll call The Big 5. These five key points are important to consider, especially because we tend to lose sight of them since we''re often too close to our own blackboards to have a broader perspective. Some of my comments may sound like common sense, but keep in mind that most everything those bestseller self-help books say is common sense, yet they''re still bestsellers.     

State Testing and Inquiry-Based Science: Are They Complementary or Competing Reforms?

The effect of district strategies for improving high-stakes test scores on science teachers practice is explored in case studies of six middle schools in six Massachusetts districts. At each school, science teachers, curriculum coordinators, principals, and superintendents shared their strategies for raising scores, their attitudes towards the test, the changes that they were implementing in their curriculum and pedagogical approaches, and the effects that the test was having on staff and on students. Results from these case studies suggest that districts chose markedly different strategies for raising scores on high stakes tests, and that the approaches taken by districts influenced the nature of pedagogical and curriculum changes in the classroom. District strategies for raising scores that were complementary to the districts prior vision of science reform tended to cause less teacher resentment towards the test than strategies that departed from previously adopted goals. Differing effects on teachers in socio-economically advantaged, middle, and challenged districts are discussed.     

Multilevel Modeling and Ordinary Least Squares Regression: How Comparable Are They?

Studies analyzing clustered data sets using both multilevel models (MLMs) and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression have generally concluded that resulting point estimates, but not the standard errors, are comparable with each other. However, the accuracy of the estimates of OLS models is important to consider, as several alternative techniques (e.g., bootstrapping) used when analyzing clustered data sets only make adjustments to standard errors but not to the regression coefficients. Using a Monte Carlo simulation, we analyzed 54,000 data sets using both MLM and OLS under varying conditions and we show that coefficients of not just OLS models, but MLMs as well, may be biased when relevant higher-level variables are omitted from a model, a situation that is likely to occur when using large-scale, secondary data sets. However, we demonstrate that by including aggregated level-one variables at the higher level, the resulting bias can be effectively removed.