Influencing the College Attendance Rates of Hispanics in Texas

A number of policymakers have shifted their attention from the participation rates of Hispanics in postsecondary education to the percentage of this population that completes a baccalaureate degree. Several reports stress that while participation rates have increased, there are continued disparities in outcomes between Hispanic and White college students (President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, 2003 President's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans . ( 2003 ). From risk to opportunity: Fulfilling the educational needs of Hispanic Americans in the 21st Century . Washington , DC : Author . Retrieved December 14, 2006, from http://www.yic.gov/paceea/final.html  [Google Scholar]; Council of Economic Advisers, 2000 Council of Economic Advisers. (2000). Educational attainment and success in the new economy: An analysis of challenges for improving Hispanic students' achievement . Washington , DC : Author. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED442890)  [Google Scholar]; Fry, 2002 Fry , R. ( 2002 ). Latinos in higher education: Many enroll, too few graduate . Washington , DC : Pew Hispanic Center . Retrieved December 12, 2006, from http://pewhispanic.org  [Google Scholar]; Vernez & Mizell, 2001 Vernez , G. & Mizell , L. ( 2001 ). Goal: To double the rate of Hispanics earning a bachelor's degree . Santa Monica , CA : RAND . (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED453771)  [Google Scholar]). Although many states have experienced increases in Hispanic postsecondary attendance, such is not the case in Texas—a state with one of the largest Hispanic populations in the country. Figures for 2003 show that 3.9% of Hispanics in Texas were enrolled in some type of postsecondary institution compared to 5.2% of African Americans and 5.6% of Caucasians (Haurwitz, 2005 Haurwitz , R. K. M. ( 2005 , January 25 ). State falling short on college enrollment: Lagging rates for Hispanics a special challenge . Austin American-Statesman . Retrieved January 2, 2007, from http://www.uh.edu/ednews/2005/aas/200501/20050125enrollment.html  [Google Scholar]).     

PROFILING CHIEF ACADEMIC OFFICERS IN PUBLIC COMMUNITY COLLEGES

A survey of chief academic officers (CAOs) at public community colleges belonging to the American Association of Community Colleges was conducted in 1998-1999. The personal and professional characteristics of respondents are reported in this article. A profile shows the average CAO to be a married White man with a doctorate. He is 52 years old and has served in office for slightly more than 6 years. Women represented more than one third of the respondents. The average female CAO is a 51-year-old married White woman with a PhD. She has served in her current positionfor slightly more than 5 years. She has heldthree previous positions in higher education, two administrative and one faculty. The study indicated that female CAOs differ from male CAOs in four ways. The continued low representation of ethnic minority group members in the CAO position is noted. The importance of the CAO position to the community college and the community college to higher education in general calls for systematic inquiry regarding such profiles on a longitudinal basis.     

From knowing to doing: assessing the skills used to teach reading and writing

Reading and Writing - This study presents results from a project to develop and pilot a new type of performance assessment of the skills used when teaching reading and writing. To provide context...     

The Internet, Spatial Data Globalization, and Data Use: The Case of Tibet

One of the fastest growing forms of downloadable Internet-based data involves digital map layers that contain spatial features suitable for analysis with a geographic information system (GIS). The availability of networked spatial data has fostered tremendous growth in the importance and use of location-based services, and it is now commonplace to find a wide variety of map-based applications and data sets on the Internet for unrestricted download. Despite the rapid growth in spatial data resources, there has been scant attention paid to their currentness, lineage, locational accuracy, completeness, and overall usefulness. This article discusses the quality of Internet spatial data by taking an extreme case to evaluate both the availability and the usefulness of spatial data posted on publicly accessible Web sites. The case study examined is Tibet, which is selected purposively because it lies at or beyond the fringes of the network society. The issue examined concerns the rehabilitation potential of locatable Buddhist monasteries. In undertaking this assessment, the efficacy of the current Internet as a source of useful spatial data is brought into question.     

An Examination of Family-School Partnership Initiatives in Rural Prekindergarten Programs

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the various ways in which families become involved in state-funded rural prekindergarten programs for children identified as being at-risk for later school failure. Participants were 21 teachers/classrooms in prekindergarten programs located in nine rural Illinois communities. Data were collected over an 18-week period on the various parental involvement and family-school partnership strategies implemented by school personnel, and the patterns of parental participation that occurred in response to the different types of initiatives. Findings indicate that wide variations existed in the parent involvement and family-school partnership initiatives implemented across the nine programs. Results are discussed in terms of future research and program development efforts aimed at helping rural early childhood programs establish effective family-school partnerships.     

A Comparison of Quantitative Questions in Open-Ended and Multiple-Choice Formats

Open–ended counterparts to a set of items from the quantitative section of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE–Q) were developed. Examinees responded to these items by gridding a numerical answer on a machine-readable answer sheet or by typing on a computer. The test section with the special answer sheets was administered at the end of a regular GRE administration. Test forms were spiraled so that random groups received either the grid-in questions or the same questions in a multiple-choice format. In a separate data collection effort, 364 paid volunteers who had recently taken the GRE used a computer keyboard to enter answers to the same set of questions. Despite substantial format differences noted for individual items, total scores for the multiple-choice and open-ended tests demonstrated remarkably similar correlational patterns. There were no significant interactions of test format with either gender or ethnicity.     

Moments of social inclusion: asylum seekers,football and solidarity

Abstract

Established in 2012, ‘the Seekers’ are a football club in Melbourne, Australia. Initially set up to provide social recreation for various refugees and asylum seekers, the Seekers have more recently entered a team in the mainstream league competition. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this paper considers how football facilitates forms of social inclusion for team members, both in relation to the action of the sport and the political and social context of Australian society more broadly. In many ways the field of sport is highly contested as players engage with the mainstream; however the solidarity forged through playing creates the possibility for moments of social inclusion in other ways. The capacity of sporting interactions to facilitate social inclusion for male team members is vexed, though there is evidence to suggest that, in the correct conditions, sport can contribute to an individual’s capacity to access employment and educational opportunities.     

Experiences of amateur athletes’ non-participating entourage at participatory sport events

ABSTRACT

The proliferation of participatory sport events is attracting scholarly attention, with extant research primarily focusing on profiling participants, and understanding participants’ experiences. The experiences and perspectives of those who travel to participatory sport events to support competing athletes, the ‘non-participating entourage’ (NPE), have largely been overlooked. This stakeholder group is arguably under-recognised by those staging participatory sport events. The purpose of this study was to explore NPE experiences at participatory sport events, adopting a phenomenological approach and employing stakeholder theory as an interpretive lens. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 21 NPE of amateur athletes in Australia. Findings highlighted that NPE provide emotional and logistical support to their athlete at events. However, while providing support, NPE also experienced positive and negative emotions arising from contextual factors including their relationship to the athlete, group composition, athlete performance, and event design and conditions. This research highlights a vexed, though crucial stakeholder relationship between NPE and event management organisations, requiring unique stakeholder management strategies.     

K-12 Science and Mathematics Teachers’ Beliefs About and Use of Inquiry in the Classroom

A survey instrument was developed and administered to 1,222 K-12 mathematics and science teachers to measure their beliefs about and use of inquiry in the classroom. Four variables (grade level taught, content area taught, level of support received, and self-efficacy for teaching inquiry) were significantly correlated to two dependent variables, percentage of time that students are engaged in inquiry during a typical lesson and the perceived ideal percentage of instructional time that should be devoted to inquiry. Specifically, elementary school teachers reported using inquiry-based practices more than either middle-school or high-school teachers; similarly, elementary-school teachers believed such practices should be used more often. All groups, however, reported believing in an ideal percentage of time devoted to inquiry instruction that was significantly greater than their reported percentage of time actually spent on inquiry instruction. A disordinal effect was found between grade level taught and content area taught; at the elementary level, science teachers reported both an ideal and actual percentage of time on inquiry higher than those reported by the math teachers, while at the high school level math teachers reported both an ideal and actual percentage of time on inquiry higher than those reported by the science teachers. No correlations were found between typical and ideal percentage of time devoted to inquiry and subject matter content knowledge training, gender, years of teaching experience, or maximum degree earned.     

Affection as a separate dimension of meaningfulness

The meaningfulness of affectively significant (liked) materials has been shown to be separate from traditional explanations of meaningfulness, such as familiarity and rehearsal, in the verbal learning laboratory. The present investigation studied affective meaningfulness in the learning of course materials. Before the course began, students rated summaries of the study units of their course for affection. As predicted, subjects obtained higher examination grades on liked topics than on disliked topics, independently of perhaps the most prominent “rehearsal” explanation, amount of study on the various units. Also as expected, poor students showed a greater reliance on affective meaningfulness in their learning than did good students. Greater awareness of the role of affection in learning is recommended. Present findings suggest that considering this dimension of meaningfulness to be merely a by-product of familiarity or rehearsal may be the most detrimental to the students with the most learning difficulty.