The Reliability of College Grades

Little is known about the reliability of college grades relative to how prominently they are used in educational research, and the results to date tend to be based on small sample studies or are decades old. This study uses two large databases (N > 800,000) from over 200 educational institutions spanning 13 years and finds that both first‐year and overall college GPA can be expected to be highly reliable measures of academic performance, with reliability estimated at .86 for first‐year GPA and .93 for overall GPA. Additionally, reliabilities vary moderately by academic discipline, and within‐school grade intercorrelations are highly stable over time. These findings are consistent with a hierarchical structure of academic ability. Practical implications for decision making and measurement using GPA are discussed.     

Comics,kitsch, and class: an autoethnographic exploration of an accidental academic

This article is an autoethnographical exploration of key events in the author’s life that influenced, even propelled, her into academia, despite working-class cultural and economic barriers. This study chronicles moments when circumstances converged to cause dramatic shifts in perspective that steered her toward a fulfilling life as a scholar. It also reveals the accidental nature of that journey and seeks to understand ways educators might encourage more deliberate academic pursuits for members of lower socioeconomic groups. The author argues for making universities more diverse and inclusive by recognizing the obstacles most working-class and poor students face and valuing the qualities necessary to overcome them.     

The Role of Competitive and Cooperative Norms in the Development of Deviant Evaluations

The present study examined how peer group norms influence children's evaluations of deviant ingroup members. Following the manipulation of competitive or cooperative norms, participants (children, M_age = 8.69; adolescents, M_age = 13.81; adults, M_age = 20.89; n = 263) evaluated deviant ingroup members from their own and the group's perspective. Children rated cooperative deviancy positively and believed their group would do the same. Adolescents and adults believed that their group would negatively evaluate cooperative deviancy when their group supported a competitive allocation strategy. Reasoning varied based on norm and participants’ agreement with deviancy. Understanding an ingroup may not be favorable toward a cooperative deviant in a competitive context is a developmental challenge requiring the coordination of social and moral norms.     

On the Superior Statistical Properties of Frequency Scales in Job Analyses

This study compared the statistical properties of four job analysis task survey response scale types: criticality, difficulty in learning, importance, and frequency. We used nine job analysis studies spanning two fields, medical imaging and allied health professionals, to compare the job analysis scales in terms of variability and interrater agreement. Results showed that frequency scales using absolute anchors had greater between-task variability and higher interrater agreement for all nine studies. This may have occurred due to what has been described by past research as self-presentation bias. In this case, an aggregate base percentage of respondents always responded that tasks in their domain are highly critical, highly important, and easy to learn. These results showed that frequency scales with absolute anchors yielded data with better statistical performance than other more subjective scales. These properties do not answer the question of whether a scale matches an exam's purpose, which is the most important consideration for job analyses. They do, however, suggest that, if statistics are a primary deciding factor, strong consideration should be given to using frequency scales with absolute anchors.     

A SELECTED LIST OF TEXTBOOKS AVAILABLE FOR USE IN THE GRADED SUNDAY SCHOOL

This study investigates Suhrawardi's epistemological and philosophical point of view in order to analyze and elicit its educational outcomes. His philosophy, which can be called eclectic philosophy (involving intellect and intuition), regularly proposes a different philosophical system with intuitionist outlook. It is the combination of two philosophical and mystical views, namely Aristotle's logical reasoning and Plato's mysticism. Suhrawardi has rather suggested this belief in the field of acquiring knowledge by humans that depends on three levels of knowledge, namely intuitive knowledge (using senses), knowledge via observation (mystical intuition), and illuminated knowledge. The third level of knowledge leads a human to the verity of knowledge. Therefore, this view about knowledge, and process of this knowledge acquisition, will have educational implications such as aims, principles, and teaching–learning methodology.