Offsetting racial disadvantage in employment: enhancing performance on personnel selection tests through access training

This paper gives an account of the use of access training in order to enhance the performance of ethnic minority candidates in the process of selection for the West Midlands Police Force. Following the location of the initiative in an equal opportunities framework, the new Police Initial Recruitment (PIR) Test is described. This test was introduced in 1991 to replace the original test, first used in 1974, and is the first element in the selection process. The aims of the access training course are outlined and attention drawn to the way in which the course seeks to develop a range of skills relevant to both the selection process and police basic training, i.e. it seeks to do more than simply raise test scores. The methods used to evaluate the effectiveness of the access course are reported before consideration is given to the issues raised by the study.     

Relationship of Online Teacher Professional Development to Seventh-Grade Teachers' and Students' Knowledge and Practices in English Language Arts

Online professional development (OPD) has potential to improve teacher quality by improving teachers' knowledge and instructional practices. These changes, in turn, have potential to improve student achievement. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of scientific research on the effects of OPD on teachers and, more importantly, on students. This article presents the results of a randomized controlled trial exploring the effects of a series of three learning-community model OPD workshops on teachers' content knowledge, teachers' instructional practices, students' content knowledge, and students' practices in the context of seventh-grade English language arts. There were statistically significant effects on teachers' vocabulary and overall English language arts content knowledge and on vocabulary and writing practices. The effect sizes of these changes ranged from small to medium. There were statistically significant effects on students' reading comprehension practices.     

Communication

“MR. LORD” An Appreciation of Miss Isabel McKinney's Biography of a Master-Teacher

THE YEARS By Virginia Woolf An Appreciational Review by Florence K. Johnston

The Honeysuckle and the Bee. By Sir John Squire. E. P. Dutton and Company. 282 pp. $3.00.

The Private Letters of Princess Lieven. Edited by Peter Quennell. E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc. 376 pp. $3.75.

A First Course in Statistics: Their Use and Interpretation in Education and Psychology. By E. F. Lindquist. Houghton, Mifflin and Company. 226 pp. $2.25.

Study Manual for a First Course in Statistics. By E. F. Lindquist. Houghton, Mifflin and Company. 122 pp. $.80.

America Yesterday and America Today. By Roy F. Nichols, William C. Bagley, and Charles A. Beard. Illustrated. The Macmillan Company. 415 pp. each. $1.40, each.

An Introduction to Progressive Education. By Samuel Engle Burr. The C. A. Gregory Company, 345 Calhoun Street, Cincinnati, Ohio. 84 pp. $.50.

Educational Psychology. By Noel B. Cuff. The Standard Printing Company, Inc., Louisville, Kentucky. 387 pp. $2.50.

Child Guidance Procedures: Methods and Techniques Employed at the Institute for Juvenile Research. By The Staff of the Institute for Juvenile Research, Paul L. Schroeder, Director. D. Appleton-Century Company, Inc. 345 pp. $2.50.

Elementary Practical Physics. By Newton Henry Black and Harvey Nathaniel Davis. The Macmillan Company. 710 pp. $2.00.

Guide to High School Biology. By Edna Craig and George K. Stone. The Macmillan Company. 146 pp. $.96.

High School Biology. By Ralph C. Benedict, Warren W. Knox, and George K. Stone. Illustrated. The Macmillan Co. 724 pp. $2.00.

How to Teach. By Claude C. Crawford. Southern California School Book Depository, Los Angeles, California. 501 pp. $2.50.

Humanized Geometray: An Introduction to Thinking. By J. Herbert Blackhurst. The University Press, 26th and University Avenue, Des Moines, Iowa. 272 pp. $1.33.

Personal and Social Adjustment. By Willis L. Uhl and Francis F. Powers. Illustrated. The Macmillan Company. 475 pp. $1.40.

Problems in American Democracy. By S. Howard Patterson, A. W. Selwyn Little, and Henry Reed Burch. The Macmillan Company. 726 pp. $1.88.

Reorganizing the Social Studies. By Vernon B. Hampton. The John Willig Press, Stapleton, New York. 91 pp. $1.25.

Secretarial Assistance in Teachers Colleges and Normal Schools. By Luther Jordan Bennett. Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, New York. 86 pp. $1.60.

Social Interpretation: Principles and Practices of Community and Public School Interpretation. By Arthur B. Moehlman. D. Appleton-Century Company. 485 pp. $3.00.

The Progress Arithmetics. By Philip A. Boyer, W. Walker Cheyney and Holman White. Book E. Accompanied by a Teacher's Manual. The Macmillan Company. 189 pp. and 29 pp. $.48.

The Student Editor. By James W. Mann. The Macmillan Company. 149 pp. $1.00.

A Mighty Fortress. By Le Grand Cannon, Jr. Farrar and Rinehart. 336 pp. $2.50.

Grass on the Mountain. By Henry and Sylvia Lieferant. E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc. 443 pp. $2.50.

Robinson of England. By John Drinkwater. Illustrated by J. H. Dowd. The Macmillan Company. 326 pp. $2.50.

The Hush-Hush Murders. By Margaret Taylor Yates. The Macmillan Company. 344 pp. $2.00.

The Wooden Spoon. By Wyn Griffith. E. P. Dutton and Co., Inc., 318 pp. $2.50.

Time Piece. By Naomi Jacob. The Macmillan Company. 352 pp. $2.50.

Victoria Four-Thirty. By Cecil Roberts. The Macmillan Company. 364 pp. $2.50.

The Concept of Morals. By W. T. Stace. The Macmillan Company. 307 pp. $2.50.

Differential Psychology. By Anne Anastasi. The Macmillan Company. 615 pp. $2.00.

In the Name of Common Sense. By Matthew N. Campbell. The Macmillan Co. 192 pp. $1.75.

Earth-Lore: Geology Without Jargon. By S. J. Shand. Illustrated. E. P. Dutton and Company. 144 pp. $1.25.

Living Safely. By Earl C. Bowman and Paul F. Boston. The Macmillan Company. 177 pp. $.52.     

Instructional Climate in Dutch Secondary Education

Research, aimed at constructing an instrument for measuring instructional climate, was conducted in 121 Dutch schools for senior general secondary education. The instrument comprised scales for students, teachers, heads of department and principals. All scales proved to be sufficiently reliable and valid. The results show that the following variables are significantly related to students' results in mathematics: students' enjoyment of mathematics; students' attitude towards high grades; students' enjoyment of learning; appreciation of how teachers prepare students for tests; students' appreciation of the teacher as a person; students' appreciation of teaching abilities; an orderly instructional climate in the classroom; frequent monitoring of student results; emphasizing achievement by teachers; and the principals' emphasis on a task oriented climate.