Statistical Process Control and Cooperative Learning Structures: A Data Assessment and Improvement System Used in a San Jose State University Summer Bridge Programme

This paper will show how tools of statistical quality control were applied to a Summer Bridge Mathematics and Science programme at San Jose State University. These tools were used as assessment instruments to facilitate improvement in overall classroom performance. We shall show how quality control tools such as brainstorming, Pareto analysis and cause-and-effect analysis can be used to identify the ‘big’ problems and to analyze the cause(s) of the ‘big’ problems. Additionally, we shall show how control charts can be used effectively to monitor how the suggested corrective actions for causes of the ‘big’ problems are faring—or acting—on the outcomes-based process. Finally, we shall show how these control charts can be used to aid in monitoring and determining whether or not the ongoing outcomes-based process is stable. Once the ‘big’ problems have been eliminated and the ongoing process is in control, we shall further demonstrate how ‘monitored assessments’, cooperative learning activities and control charts can help to improve the overall process.     

Internal review and self-evaluation — the chosen route to school improvement in ireland?

In recent years there has been an intense debate in many countries concerning the best approach to improving schools. The various methods being tried might be reasonably seen as constituting a continuum ranging from strict external control and inspection at one end, to self-evaluation and internal regulation at the other. In practice, most education systems appear to be moving towards a combination of these methods, involving a degree of external monitors of internal self-evaluation mechanisms. This article analyses the gradual emergence in the Irish education system of such an accommodation. It charts the increased emphasis being placed upon school self-evaluation and argues that it does constitute the best way forward. However, it also highlights a major lacuna at the heart of the emerging system, namely the lack of firm data on which schools can really base effective improvement strategies.     

Classroom wall charts and Biblical history: a study of educational technology in elementary schools in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Sweden

This article considers the emergence of classroom wall charts as a teaching technology in Swedish elementary schools in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, using Biblical history teaching as an example. There has been some work done internationally on wall charts as an instructional technology, but few studies have looked at their use in Sweden. With a theoretical approach informed by Martin Lawn’s understanding of teaching technologies, this article shows that wall charts became both an important teaching object and a means of introducing new pedagogical ideas. A study of the official school inspectors’ reports shows that wall charts had spread to most local schools by the end of the nineteenth century, while an analysis of Biblical history textbooks and teaching guidelines shows that visual aids were increasingly integrated into the school curriculum. The wall charts themselves were initially imported, mainly from Germany, but by the end of the nineteenth century they were being produced in Sweden for the domestic market, in keeping with the National Romantic ideals of the day as well as with the new awareness of the importance of adapting images to use in classroom teaching.     

The impact of feedback on school performance

Over the past few years Research Data Services (RDS), part of the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), has led numerous large‐scale, longitudinal projects. Feedback to schools has been provided for all of these projects, and has been in the form of sets of tables and charts and electronic files illustrating pupil performance and progress in each school compared with national norms. This study sought to establish what differences the ongoing provision of feedback has made to the participating schools. The main thrust of the study was a statistical analysis of the most current National Pupil Dataset. Using this dataset, the overall impact on pupil performance in the participating schools of their participation in projects where feedback is used could be examined. In general, the findings presented in this paper suggest that school feedback does have an impact on key stage 2 performance.     

浅谈软件过程性能及稳定性的分析方法

目前常用的软件过程模型有CMM、PSP、TSP和敏捷开发过程等,对这些过程模型的使用,需采用统计过程控制方法的控制图等工具对过程数据采样点进行分析,以便了解过程性能和过程能力,采取措施消除过程异常,保证过程的稳定性,从而提高软件开发质量.本文简要介绍了CMM、PSP等过程模型以及基于离散数据的控制图分析过程稳定性的方法.     

African Americans’ Participation in a Comprehensive Intervention College Prep Program

The National Center for Educational Statistics, in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Education, compiles statistical data for U.S. schools. As charts indicate, in 2001, it reported that nationwide, 76% of high-income graduates immediately enroll in colleges or trade schools. However, only 49% of Hispanic and 59% of African Americans enroll immediately after graduating from high school. Research demonstrates that high academic achievers from low-income families are only one-fifth as likely to enroll in college as high achievers from high-income families (U.S. Department of Education, Center for Educational Statistics, 2001). This article is an examination of the components of a college prep program, GEAR-UP, which is a federally funded comprehensive intervention program to determine if African American participants improved predictors of achievement (PSAT, SAT, and GPA scores).     

Failure to thrive? The community literacy strand of the Additive Bilingual Project at an Eastern Cape Community School,South Africa

This paper discusses an attempt to establish community literacy procedures in an Eastern Cape community school. The school hosts the Additive Bilingual Education (ABLE) project, a cooperation between UK and South African universities and the school trust. The community literacy strand of the project encourages family members to contribute oral texts in Xhosa to the school (for example, ntsomi or traditional stories, biographies and procedural texts such as recipes). These are then turned into print and electronic text through shared writing, and act as reading resources through paired reading, a cross‐age peer‐tutoring procedure. This is an attempt to deal with the shortage of reading material in Xhosa, while at the same time enhancing community involvement in the school by producing ‘culturally relevant’ materials. In discussing the problems I encountered in attempting to establish these procedures, I seek to link factors operating at the micro level of school practicalities and community attitudes with those operating at the macro level of national policy and international cooperation.     

Statistical Process Control Charts for Measuring and Monitoring Temporal Consistency of Ratings

Methods of statistical process control were briefly investigated in the field of educational measurement as early as 1999. However, only the use of a cumulative sum chart was explored. In this article other methods of statistical quality control are introduced and explored. In particular, methods in the form of Shewhart mean and standard deviation charts are introduced as techniques for ensuring quality in a measurement process for rating performance items in operational assessments. Several strengths and weaknesses of the procedures are explored with illustrative real and simulated rating data. Further research directions are also suggested .     

教育成本计量探讨

教育成本是为使受教育者接受教育所耗费的资源的价值， 教育成本数据是对有关各方都有重要价值的信息， 有必要进行计量。教育成本的计量方法有三类： 统计调查、利用现有会计资料转换计算和成本核算。从计量的主体看，教育成本有社会成本、学校成本和个人成本之分。学校的功能是提供教育服务， 所以学校教育成本就是提供教育服务的成本。只有与提供教育有关的支出才可以计入教育成本， 其他如学生的补贴、学校附属机构的支出等与教学无关的支出不能计入教育成本     

计量型数据控制图在转向泵生产中的实用技术研究

在汽车行业的质量控制体系中,企业通常都会把控制图作为重要的过程控制手段.一般说来,企业都严格遵循SPC技术运用固定化和模式化的标准控制图来进行质量管理和过程控制.然而,大连液压件厂通过实践,使计量型数据控制图技术在汽车转向泵的生产中得到应用,并独创了阀孔控制图和试验台用油清洗度控制图,增强了控制图的适用性,效果比较理想,有很好的实用价值.     

Statistical tests conducted with school environment data: The effect of teachers being clustered in schools

This article discusses the effect of clustering on statistical tests conducted with school environment data. Because most school environment studies involve the collection of data from teachers nested within schools, the hierarchical nature to these data cannot be ignored. In particular, this article considers the influence of intraschool correlations on tests of statistical significance conducted with the individual teacher as the unit of analysis. Theory that adjusts t test scores for nested data in two-group comparisons is presented and applied to school environment data. This article demonstrates that Type I error rates inflate greatly as the intraschool correlation increases. Because data analysis techniques that recognise the clustering of teachers in schools are essential, it is recommended that either multilevel analysis or adjustments to statistical parameters be undertaken in school environment studies involving nested data.     

Continuous improvement in the Industrial and Management Systems Engineering programme at Kuwait University

This paper describes the process employed by the Industrial and Management Systems Engineering programme at Kuwait University to continuously improve the programme. Using a continuous improvement framework, the paper demonstrates how various qualitative and quantitative analyses methods, such as hypothesis testing and control charts, have been applied to the results of four assessment tools and other data sources to improve performance. Important improvements include the need to reconsider two student outcomes as they were difficult to implement in courses. In addition, through benchmarking and the engagement of Alumni and Employers, key decisions were made to improve the curriculum and enhance employability.     

Singapore Students' Perceptions of Graphs,Charts and Maps

Graphs, charts and maps are often used to present quantitative information. Students learn about these in geography, mathematics and other subjects across the curriculum. From contact with school teachers it has been found that many students have problems with graphic representations. This is often seen as a problem of teaching method rather than a problem concerning students' understanding. Studies in Sweden (Ottosson & Aberg-Bengtsson, 1995) and Australia (Gerber et al., 1995) confirm that it is not teaching methods alone that matter. The studies also indicate that the meanings assigned by beholders of graphs, charts and maps are closely linked to their life experiences. This is similarly so for Singapore students. Over thirty students ranging from 11 to 20 years of age were interviewed on their interpretation of a set of graphs, charts and maps of an imaginary world. A phenomenographic analysis shows that the students experienced considerable variations in their perceptions of graphic representations of quantitative data (graphs, charts and maps). These variations are represented in an outcome space diagram showing three major levels of understanding.     

Opportunity and high school completion

In recent years, the social sciences and educational research have shown increased interest in the place of rationality, choice, and creativity in social behavior. While social and cultural determinism are still conspicuous in such work, researchers and theorists are less inclined to treat behavior as mechanistically determined or to construe students and others as wholly passive products of their circumstances. Using school district-level Florida data for 1984–85, we treat students' decisions to complete high school or to drop out as interpretably rational. Specifically, we interpret such decisions in terms of students' perceptions of the payoffs and costs associated with completing high school. Consistent with this view, our statistical analysis suggests that district-to-district differences in high school completion rates are positively related to post-high school economic and educational opportunities. Further, high school completion rates are negatively related to our measure of the costs of schooling. Dropping out of high school, in this view, need not be treated as a wholly irrational phenomenon. In part, it is a product of students' attempts to respond rationally to their circumstances.     

School Enrolment Patterns in Rural Ghana: A comparative study of the impact of location,gender, age and health on children's access to basic schooling

The aim of this article is to discuss the results from three censuses conducted on school age children in rural Ghana which reveal contemporary patterns in enrolment. The data provide a profile of the school age population in basic education and contribute novel quantitative data on children out of school. The article examines the age at first enrolment, the gender disparities between classes, the classes where children drop out, and the proportion of children who never enrol in school. The stark contrast in enrolment between the disadvantaged north and the south of the country is also confirmed. Qualitative data from focus group discussions with parents, teachers and children highlight the major obstacles confronting education-these include a diversity of factors such as child labour, health, location and gender. Suggestions of policy options needed to increase access and attainment to schooling include reducing the over-age entry, increasing female access and participation, adapting culturally sensitive strategies, collecting better statistical data, improving the health of school age children and lessening the gap between the north and south of the country.     

Statistical learning and dyslexia: a systematic review

The existing literature on developmental dyslexia (hereafter: dyslexia) often focuses on isolating cognitive skills which differ across dyslexic and control participants. Among potential correlates, previous research has studied group differences between dyslexic and control participants in performance on statistical learning tasks. A statistical learning deficit has been proposed to be a potential cause and/or a marker effect for early detection of dyslexia. It is therefore of practical importance to evaluate the evidence for a group difference. From a theoretical perspective, such a group difference would provide information about the causal chain from statistical learning to reading acquisition. We provide a systematic review of the literature on such a group difference. We conclude that there is insufficient high-quality data to draw conclusions about the presence or absence of an effect.     

Labor versus capital in the provision of public services: Estimating the marginal products of inputs in the production of student outcomes✰

This paper uses data on Ohio school districts to estimate the short and long term impact of different types of school expenditures on student outcomes. Our identification strategy employs a dynamic regression discontinuity design that relies upon the exogenous variation in public school funding created by marginally approved or failed local referenda to fund Ohio schools. We find that additional school expenditures on operating, minor capital, and major capital expenditure categories do not have a statistically significant effect on the student test scores of the average public school. Importantly, however, operating expenditures have a large and statistically significant impact on student performance in higher poverty school districts. We also examine possible channels (e.g., class size, attendance, discipline, and teachers’ compensation) through which each type of expenditure may affect outcomes, and we find that teachers’ compensation is the only channel that is affected by additional operating and minor capital expenditures.     

Using Paper Helicopters to Teach Statistical Process Control

This hands‐on project uses a paper helicopter to teach students how to distinguish between common and special causes of variability when developing and using statistical process control charts. It allows the student to experience a process that is out‐of‐control due to imprecise or incomplete product design specifications and to discover how the process can be brought into control through the use of standardized product specifications and associated construction procedures. It also allows the student to experience common causes of variability, to distinguish these from the special causes of variability resulting from the incomplete design specifications, and to discover how standardization reduces process variability. The project has been used in both undergraduate and MBA classes and demonstrates these concepts in a way that is easy for the student to understand and remember.     

高职学生特质自我控制对学业倦怠的影响

目的：考察高职学生的特质自我控制水平对其学业倦怠的预测作用.方法：采用《特质自我控制量表》和《大学生学业倦怠量表》对366名高职学生施测,并采用多层次回归分析对数据进行统计.结果：城镇生源学生比农村生源学生表现出更多学习不当行为（P＜0.05）;男生在情绪低落维度上的得分显著高于女生（P＜0.05）;特质自我控制与学业倦怠各维度上的得分以及总体得分存在显著的负相关（P＜0.01）;在人口统计学变量后,特质自我控制对学业倦怠各维度以及总体得分均存在显著的负向预测作用（P＜0.01）,方差解释率达到16％至26％.结论：高职学生的特质自我控制是学业倦怠的一个重要保护性因子.