Performance Indicators and League Tables: A Call for Standards

League tables are weighted combinations of scores on performance indicators. The Times newspaper publishes an annual league table of British universities and the focus of this article is the 1994 table. The scores of ninety-six universities on fourteen performance indicators are ranked using weights which 'reflect the interests of students'. The league table is intended as a resource which allows students to compare universities and therefore it is important for both students and universities that valid inferences can be drawn from its use. The table fails to meet any of the technical requirements which would assure its internal construct validity. The educational measurement literature requires that validity inquiry must include consideration of social consequences and it is demonstrated that the technical shortcomings of the Times table could have significant adverse impact, even in the top ten universities. It is argued that universities should forsake their current stance of non-co-operation and develop a shortlist of demanding technical standards, linked to the educational measurement literature, which could be referenced in effective attacks upon poorly constructed league tables.     

Telling It as It Is? Massification,Performance Indicators andthe Press

The publication of a series of performance indicators for UK higher education late in 1999 drew attention again to the move towards a massified system that accelerated two decades ago. Elements of the press took the published data as an opportunity to attack the massification that has taken place, since non-completion was found to be higher in the (less prestigious) newer universities and the colleges of higher education. This article summarises the published performance indicators, analyses the indicator data, discusses the press reaction and reflects on some implications of the findings for the sector and institutions. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Music Teacher Performance Evaluation: A Call for More Inclusive Models

Traditional methods for the evaluation of teachers appear to have limited applicability for the majority of elementary and secondary school educators engaged in the field of fine and performing arts, due primarily to the specialized nature of their respective teaching disciplines. Educational administrators charged with the responsibility for evaluating personnel confront an additional challenge when compelled to apply general models that are not suited to the highly complex world of performing arts instruction. In order for educators to make informed evaluation decisions, comprehensive information about the contributions of arts personnel may need to be reconsidered. New evaluation models emerging in the closing years of the twentieth century may hold the key for a more inclusive view of teaching performance in the arts. This article explores the use of traditional evaluation in the context of music education and addresses the future need for more reliable approaches to music teacher evaluation.     

Test-Taking Strategy as a Mediator between Race and Academic Performance

The issue of race differences in standardized test scores and academic achievement continues to be a vexing one for behavioral scientists and society at large. Ellis and Ryan (2003) suggested that a portion of the cognitive-ability test performance differences between White/Caucasian-American and Black/African-American college students could be attributed to the greater use of ineffective test-taking strategies by the latter group. We replicated and extended their findings by using three outcomes—exam scores in a single academic course, self-reported GPA, and a measure of verbal abilities. Ellis and Ryan reported that the variance in cognitive-ability test performance explained by race dropped by 48% (i.e., from 21% originally to 11%) when controlling for the mediator, ineffective test-taking strategies. Our results were less dramatic, but also indicated that ineffective test-taking strategies accounted for 19% to 25% of the variance originally explained by race. In addition, reminiscent of the disidentification effect, supplementary analyses showed that academic/intellectual self-perceptions correlated with the criterion measures but only for White participants. These results suggest that a portion of the race difference on test scores might be accounted for by test-taking strategies.     

学校投入与家庭投入哪个更重要?--回应由《科尔曼报告》引起的关于学校与家庭作用之争

自《科尔曼报告》公布至今已经过去了半个世纪,但对于学生学业成绩来说,学校投入与家庭投入哪个更重要的问题在国内外学术界依然没有达成共识。本文利用我国东部和中部5省16个城市中小学校大规模测评数据,采用广义教育生产函数方法,运用两水平线性模型,分析了学校投入和家庭投入要素对教育产出(以学生学业成绩为代理变量)的影响效应。同时,采用Shapley值和Owen值分解技术,识别出对学校教育产出有较大影响的投入要素,得出以下4个方面结论:第一,除生师比之外,办学条件和教师质量等学校投入要素对教育产出结果有显著的正效应。第二,父母参与、父母教育期望等家庭投入要素对教育产出结果有显著的正效应。第三,对于小学平均学业成绩而言,来自家庭的相关投入更重要;对于初中平均学业成绩而言,则是来自学校的相关投入更为重要。第四,相比学校办学条件,教师质量对中小学校平均学业成绩变异的贡献度更大;而且,相比小学,教师质量对初中学校平均学业成绩变异的贡献度更大。基于实证研究结论,提出提高我国中小学教育生产效率的5点建议:一是调整义务教育资源配置结构,优先保障初中阶段学校教育投入;二是改善义务教育阶段教师的工资待遇和工作环境,以吸引更多高素质人才投入义务教育事业;三是通过校外教师专业发展培训、校本教研合作等途径切实提高教师队伍的教学策略水平,尤其要重视提高初中教师的教学策略水平;四是政府和相关部门应尽快出台有关家庭教育的制度规范,强化父母在家庭教育中的主体责任,督促父母积极参与子女教育生产过程;五是学校和社区应广泛开展家庭教育讲座和家庭教育实践培训活动,引导家长树立正确的家庭教育观,掌握科学的养育子女的方法,以提高学校教育和家庭教育联合生产的效率。     

Immersive VR for Organic Chemistry: Impacts on Performance and Grades for First-Generation and Continuing-Generation University Students

Innovative Higher Education - Rapid advances in the quality and accessibility of immersive virtual reality (IVR) have brought about intense interest in applications of the technology within higher...     

Grade-point-average-based Scheme for Tracking Academic Students' Performance at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals

A presentation of a grade-point-average-based scheme for tracking academic performance of students at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) is given. The application of such a scheme to students at KFUPM with promotional grade point averages (1.000-1.600) from the Preparatory Year Programme to college is presented. The case-study included tracking the academic performance of 916 students admitted to KFUPM between 1984 and 1989.     

Willingness to obtain Student Evaluations as a Criterion of Academic Staff Performance

In a preliminary report published in 1988 a working party of the Australian Vice‐Chancellors’ Committee and the Australian Committee of Directors and Principals in Advanced Education Limited suggested that the number of formative evaluations by students be adopted as an indicator of commitment to teaching of university departments. This study reports research into factors influencing individual staff willingness to seek such information from students. Relationships were explored among seven demographic, educational and professional background variables and between them and two criterion variables, Perceived Competence on teaching tasks and Willingness to Obtain Student Evaluations. Perceived Competence was found to be the major direct but negative influence upon Willingness to Obtain Student Evaluations, while sex, possession of a doctorate and length of teaching experience were found to have indirect effects mediated by Perceived Competence.     

A Comparison of Athletes and Non-Athletes at Highly Selective Colleges: Academic Performance and Personal Development

Student-athletes were studied over 4 years at a highly selective liberal arts college and an Ivy League university. Students spending 10 or more hours per week in athletic activities had lower entering academic credentials and academic self-assessments than non-athletes, but the academic performance of athletes was not below what would be expected based on their entering profiles. Athletes surpassed non-athletes on sociability/extraversion and self-reported well-being in each annual wave of the study. Athletes were not isolated from the rest of the student body; they spent over 50% of their time with non-group members and belonged to non-athletic extracurricular groups every year. Athletes perceived group membership to pose greater difficulties to academic performance and involvements outside the group than did members of other types of extracurricular groups. Athletes drank more heavily on weekends that non-athletes, but did not differ in growth or well-being. Comparisons by athletic status were similar for men and women.     

运用“增值”评量指标评估学校表现

运用“增值”评量方法能增强学校效能评估的效度,同时也为教育评估提供了有关的新理念。进行“增值”评量时,有必要收集学生的学习成绩、学生的学习能力基线、学校背景和情境信息、学校教育环境信息等。在研究学校效能的领域里比较常用的几种统计分析方法各有其优缺点。为得到学校的真实情况,需要分析不同类型“增值”评量指标。有关人员需了解“增值”评量方法的局限性,以做到有效使用。一个旨在促进学校评价方法创新和学校教学质量提高的中一英合作“增值”评量试验项目正在中国进行。     

自我调节学习能力是提高学业成绩的关键

自我调节学习理论主要是社会认知学派的学者们提出的,国外对此的研究有很多,但国内的研究还比较有限.因此,自我调节学习成为近年来教育界研究的热点问题,很多研究者都从不同的角度对这一问题进行了探讨.而成就目标定向和自我效能感是影响学生自我调节学习的关键因素.本文通过探讨成就目标定向、自我效能感与自我调节学习之间的关系,找出培养学生自我调节学习能力和提高学业成绩的更好途径,为学校教育教学作出贡献.     

非财务指标在企业绩效评价体系中的运用

近年来,企业绩效评价的一个显趋势是在绩效评价指标体系中引入非财务指标。但是,非财务指标并不能替代财务指标,各种指标并非越多越好,并要随时注意评价指标的适用性。     

浅谈民营企业高级职员绩效考评指标体系

我国民营企业普遍缺乏科学规范的高级职员绩效考评指标体系,笔者根据定量考评与定性评价相结合的原则,运用KPI选取数量、质量、成本和时限为定量指标,选取德、能、勤为定性指标,系统地完善民营企业高级职员绩效考评指标体系．通过借鉴360度考评法确定定性指标的考评主体,并运用层次分析法确定考评体系指标的权重,对指标体系的具体运用进行了深入分析．     

Research Performance Indicators Based on Peer Review: A Critical Analysis

The validity of indices of departmental research performance based on three different types of peer review is critically examined. The three types of peer review under investigation are: journal peer review, grant-giver peer review, and impressionistic peer review. It is shown that, of the indices considered, only those based on journal peer review constitute true performance indicators that are capable of yielding a reasonably valid measure of departmental performance. A basic requirement of a performance indicator is that it should relate output to input. None of the indices based on grant-giver peer review or impressionistic peer review satisfies this criterion. They are therefore unable to provide the information that the UGC seeks to obtain in its 1989–90 evaluation, namely, an indication of the cost-effectiveness of departmental research programmes. On both a priori and empirical grounds, indices based on grant-giver peer review and impressionistic peer review are shown to yield unsatisfactory measures of departmental research performance. Fifteen serious defects are identified in indices based on grant-giver peer review, and nine major flaws are highlighted in indices based on impressionistic peer review. Implications for the conduct of the UGC's 1989–90 evaluation are discussed.     

Professional Development of Counselor Education Students: An Exploratory Study of Professional Performance Indicators for Assessment

Although training standards for counseling students emphasize the importance of student evaluation, there is a lack of research that specifically describes how counselor educators may systematically assess the professional development of counselors-in-training. This exploratory study sought to determine a set of performance indicators for each of five identified components of professional development to provide counselor educators with an initial framework for assessing the professional growth of master's-level counseling students.     

Taylorism,Tylerism and Performance Indicators: defending the indefensible?

This paper explores some of the antecedents to the recent growing interest in the United Kingdom in the use of educational performance indicators, and links it in particular to aspects of both Taylorist and Tylerist philosophies. It attempts to distinguish between different constructed meanings of performance indicators evident in both policy statements and practice. Whilst acknowledging the many potential problems inherent in the adoption of this approach to evaluation, the paper argues that both the nature and use of educational performance indicators are crucially shaped by factors such as purpose, authorship, focus and audience. The paper outlines an approach to performance indicators which tacitly addresses a critique of Taylorist and Tylerist influences, adopting an optimistic view that indicators can be made professionally relevant and useful. At the heart of the paper is an account of a collaborative evaluation project which, over the last 5 years, has supported the development of teacher‐generated indicators across some 80 schools and colleges in a consortium of six local education authorities. Despite the difficulties which have been encountered in this approach, the paper concludes that performance indicators can be made professionally relevant and useful.