A critique of the expectancy formula approach: Beating a dead horse?

The expectancy and severe discrepancy formulas, like those originally considered by the US. Office of Education (1976), provide the oldest but least defensible method of quantifying academic discrepancy. A logical and mathematical analysis reveals that all variations of this approach have several major weaknesses. First, the expectancy formulas themselves are predicated upon the very questionable assumption that achievement follows a straight line growth pattern, which raises questions about the accuracy of the resulting severe discrepancy values. Second, when discrepancy values are obtained by multiplying the expected values by a fractional constant, the approach is necessarily biased in the direction of applying a more stringent underachievement criterion for older and brighter children. Third, the formulas employ a grade equivalent scale that results in inconsistencies, one being that fewer arithmetic problems are identified. Finally, the expectancy approach does not consider errors in measurement or regression effects, and consequently produces serious identification errors. A variation of the expectancy approach involving a discrepancy ratio between obtained and expected achievement has the previously mentioned limitations, except the bias, and it produces scores that cannot be easily interpreted.     

Computer based readers for intermediate foreign‐language students

The question that we are trying to answer in this article is how can computer technology and the WWW help us in enabling and motivating students to read in a foreign language? The article starts with some general considerations about the nature of foreign language teaching and the role of technology, as well as the research in the field of reading in general vs. computer assisted reading in particular, and is followed by the discussion of two computer based pedagogical readers. The article concludes with some suggestions for the development and design of new computer and on‐line readers for foreign language teaching. In this article, pedagogical readers are defined as authentic texts in a foreign language that are enhanced with interspersed questions, activities and glosses in multimedia format to assist low level students in learning how to read authentic texts and to understand them. This application is different from another very popular use of the WWW, namely as a source of authentic readings for students at more advanced language proficiency levels.Recueils des textes basés sur ordinateurs par les étudiants en langues vivantes. La question à laquelle nous essayons de répondre dans cet article est de savoir comment la technologie de l'ordinateur et le WWW nous aident à motiver les étudiants à la lecture des textes en langue étrangère. L'article débute par des considérations générales sur la nature de l'enseignement des langues étrangéres et le rôle de la technologie, aussi bien sur la recherche dans le champ de la lecture en général par rapport à la lecture assisté par l'ordinateur en particulier. L'article comporte ensuite une discussion sur deux recueils de textes pédagogiques fondés sur ordinateur. En conclusion on trouve des suggestions pour le développement et la conception de nouveaux recueils de textes online pour ordinateur pour l'enseignement des langues étrangères. Les recueils de textes pédagogiques sont définis comme des textes authentiques en langue étrangère renforcés par intervalles par des questions, des activités et des glosses et commentaires pour aider les étudiants de bas niveau à apprendre comment lire des textes authentiques et à les comprendre. Cette application est différente d'autre usage trés populaire du WWW, source de textes authentiques pour les étudiants à un niveau plus avancé.Computer basierte Leseprogramme für beginnende Fremdsprachenstudenten. Dieser Artikel geht der Frage nach, wie uns Computer und moderne Technologie helfen können, Schüler besser zum Lesen, in unserem Falle dem Lesen in einer Fremdsprache, zu befähigen und zu motivieren? Beginnend mit einigen allgemeinen Bemerkungen zum Fremdsprachenerwerb und zur Rolle von Technologie, zur Forschung auf dem Gebiet des Lesens mit und ohne Computerunterstützung, sowie gestützt auf die Diskussion zweier computergestützter pädagogischer Leseprogramme, soll der Artikel einige Anregungen für die Entwicklung und Gestaltung zukünftiger computergestützter Leseprogramme für den Fremdsprachenunterricht geben. Als pädagogische Leseprogramme bezeichnen wir in diesem Artikel fremdsprachige Orginaltexte, die durch eingeschobene Inhaltsfragen, Aktivitäten, Anmerkungen, Bilder und andere multimediale Hilfsmittel adaptiert wurden, um dem in der Fremdsprache noch relativ unerfahrenen Leser zu zeigen, wie man liesst, und um ihm zu helfen, das Gelesene zu verstehen. Diese Anwendung ist zu unterscheiden von einem anderen, sehr verbreitetem Gebrauch des Internets, nämlich als einer blossen Quelle für Originaltexte für fortgeschrittene Fremdsprachenlerner.     

Gender Differences in Self‐efficacy and Academic Performance among Students of Business Administration

Gender differences in perceived self‐efficacy and academic performance in marketing, organizational behaviour, accounting, computing, mathematics and statistics were investigated in 154 college students studying business administration. At the beginning of their second year in college, the students completed a questionnaire designed to measure self‐efficacy in subjects they had studied during their first year. The female students had significantly lower self‐efficacy in computing and marketing and higher self‐efficacy in statistics than the male students. Except for statistics, where female students outperform their male counterparts, there were no significant gender differences in academic performance.     

Curriculum-Based Measurement in the Content Areas: Validity of Vocabulary-Matching as an Indicator of Performance in Social Studies

In this study, we examined the reliability and validity of two curriculum-based measures as indicators of performance in a content-area classroom. Participants were 58 students in a 7th-grade social studies class. CBM measures were student- and administrator-read vocabulary-matching probes. Criterion measures were knowledge pre- and post-tests, the social studies subtest of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, and student grades. Results revealed moderate alternate-form reliability for both vocabulary-matching measures. Reliability of the measures was increased by combining scores across two testing sessions. Correlations between the predictor and criterion variables were moderate to moderately strong, with the exception of those between vocabulary-matching and student grades. Observed scores for students with LD were lower than for students without LD on both student- and administrator-read vocabulary-matching measures. Few differences in reliability and validity coefficients were found between the student- and administrator-read measures. Results are discussed in terms of the use of CBM as a system for monitoring performance and designing interventions for students with learning disabilities in content-area classrooms.