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Amy Laura Dombro is the author of The Ordinary is Extraordinary: How Children Under Three Learn,published by Simon &; Schuster. She lives in New York City.     

Mission matters: The cost of small high schools revisited

With the financial support of several large foundations and the federal government, creating small schools has become a prominent high school reform strategy in many large American cities. While some research supports this strategy, little research assesses the relative costs of these smaller schools. We use data on over 200 New York City high schools, from 1996 through 2003, to estimate school cost functions relating per pupil expenditures to school size, controlling for school output and quality, student characteristics, and school organization.We find that the structure of costs differs across schools depending upon mission—comprehensive or themed. At their current levels of outputs, themed schools minimize per pupil costs at smaller enrollments than comprehensive schools, but these optimally sized themed schools also cost more per pupil than optimally sized comprehensive schools. We also find that both themed and comprehensive high schools at actual sizes are smaller than their optimal sizes.     

Owning Your Emotions: Reactions to Expressions of Self- versus Other-Attributed Positive and Negative Emotions

This investigation tested the notion that speakers should own their emotions by using I-messages rather than You-messages when conveying their feelings. In Study 1, hypothetical self-attributed (I) emotion messages were compared to other-attributed (You) messages, with an I-You message added in Study 2. In both studies, the effect of both positive and negative emotion statements on perceived politeness, effectiveness, and emotional reactions were assessed. No differences were found in reactions to the message forms for negative emotions, but both studies provided evidence for differences in respondents' reaction to positive emotional expressions. These results suggest a self-serving bias; recipients do not distinguish between ways of phrasing negative emotions expressed to them, but apparently appreciate being given credit for speakers' positive emotions. Implications for therapists, communication consultants, and practitioners are discussed.     

An NCME Instructional Module on Multistage Testing

Multistage tests are those in which sets of items are administered adaptively and are scored as a unit. These tests have all of the advantages of adaptive testing, with more efficient and precise measurement across the proficiency scale as well as time savings, without many of the disadvantages of an item-level adaptive test. As a seemingly balanced compromise between linear paper-and-pencil and item-level adaptive tests, development and use of multistage tests is increasing. This module describes multistage tests, including two-stage and testlet-based tests, and discusses the relative advantages and disadvantages of multistage testing as well as considerations and steps in creating such tests.     

Until somebody hears me: parent voice and advocacy in special educational decision making

When a family finds out their child has a disability, they enter the world of special education which has its own terminology, rules, settings and personnel. In addition to grappling with the meaning of their child's special needs, families are also thrown into the role of principle advocate for their child. The research study reported here presents the findings from focus groups conducted in the United States of America with 27 diverse families on their efforts to obtain the best educational outcomes for their children. In this article, Robyn Hess, Amy Molina and Elizabeth Kozleski bring their collective past experiences, as a school psychologist, bilingual counsellor and special education teacher respectively, to bear on this topic and frame the issue from a systemic perspective. They argue that engaging in conversation with families around their needs, as well as assisting them in their efforts to advocate for their child, is the first step in creating more equal partnerships between parents of children with special needs and educational professionals.     

Electrodes on a budget: Micropatterned electrode fabrication by wet chemical deposition

Precise patterning of metals is required for diverse microfluidic and microelectromechanical system (MEMS) applications ranging from the separation of proteins to the manipulation of single cells and drops of water-in-oil emulsions. Here we present a very simple, inexpensive method for fabricating micropatterned electrodes. We deposit a thin metal layer of controlled thickness using wet chemistry, thus eliminating the need for expensive equipment typically required for metal deposition. We demonstrate that the resulting deposited metal can be used to fabricate functional electrodes: The wet-deposited metal film can sustain patterning by photolithography down to micron-sized features required for MEMS and microfluidic applications, and its properties are suitable for operative electrodes used in a wide range of microfluidic applications for biological studies.     

Limiting Answer Review and Change on Computerized Adaptive Vocabulary Tests: Psychometric and Attitudinal Results

Previous simulation studies of computerized adaptive tests (CATs) have revealed that the validity and precision of proficiency estimates can be maintained when review opportunities are limited to items within successive blocks. Our purpose in this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of CATs with such restricted review options in a live testing setting. Vocabulary CATs were compared under four conditions: (a) no item review allowed, (b) review allowed only within successive 5-item blocks, (c) review allowed only within successive lO-item blocks, and (d) review allowed only after answering all 40 items. Results revealed no trust-worthy differences among conditions in vocabulary proficiency estimates, measurement error, or testing time. Within each review condition, ability estimates and number correct scores increased slightly after review, more answers were changed from wrong to right than from right to wrong, most examinees who changed answers improved proficiency estimates by doing so, and nearly all examinees indicated that they had an adequate opportunity to review their previous answers. These results suggest that restricting review opportunities on CATs may provide a viable way to satisfy examinee desires, maintain validity and measurement precision, and keep testing time at acceptable levels.