Screening for school readiness: The influence of birthdate and sex

School readiness has been measured in many ways; chronological age, sex, and developmental age all have been used, with varying success, to predict young children's readiness for school. One hundred and fifty-two children were classified by birthdate and sex, and compared on their performances on the Gesell Screening Test, the Gesell School Readiness Test (GSRT), and the Stanford Achievement Test. The Gesell measures were sensitive to the different birthdate groups; however, these differences diminished as the children aged. There were no significant differences between birthdate groups on the Stanford Achievement Test. Females scored higher than males on the GSRT at the end of kindergarten, but no interactions between birthdate and sex were found. Implications of the varying ways to determine school readiness are discussed.     

Blurred Vision?: Public and Private Higher Education in Indonesia

If, as some have argued, private higher education is now the most dynamic segment of higher education, it is also the case that its growth, partly in response to the increasing mismatch between spiralling demand and limited state capacity, is often ad hoc. The article examines the contours of this trend in Indonesia, where the balance of public and private higher education has shifted sharply over the last two decades. While the private sector has been responsible for much of the expansion in higher education, its role in relation to quality is more questionable. Indonesia’s economic burdens, sharply exacerbated by the effects of the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s, make it likely that the trend towards privatisation, including of its public institutions, will continue. Together with the current rise of trans-national higher education, however, this is only likely to sharpen existing difficulties around longstanding issues of quality, equality, and regulatory capacity.     

Interpersonal conflict: Effects of variations in manner of expressing anger and justification for anger upon perceptions of appropriateness,competence, and satisfaction

Using a 3x3 factorial design, nine scenarios were developed in which a spouse had either a strong, moderate, or weak justification for becoming angry at a subject who was instructed to assume the role of the other spouse. In each senario, the spouse confronted the subject and expressed anger in one of three ways: assertively, aggressively, or non‐assertively. Subjects responded to the spouse's expression of anger on scales measuring perceptions of appropriateness, competence, and satisfaction. Findings contradicted conventional wisdom and research findings on assertive communication. Implications of the results along with suggestions for future research were offered.     

Globalisation,transnational academic mobility and the Chinese knowledge diaspora: an Australian case study

The master discourses of economic globalisation and the knowledge economy each cite knowledge diasporas as vital ‘trans-national human capital’. Based on a case study of a major Australian university, this article examines the potential to deploy China's large and highly-skilled diaspora in the service of Chinese and Australian scientific and technological development. It finds that at a time when much of the world is deeply mired in a global financial crisis, this treasured resource of highly-skilled intellectuals assumes even greater significance. Meanwhile, there are key challenges to be confronted to fully utilise China's overseas talent. It argues that the Chinese knowledge diaspora are a modern kind of cosmopolitan literati, and could contribute actively to higher education internationalisation in both Australia and China.     

Alignment and Implications for Test Takers

The use of assessment results to inform school accountability relies on the assumption that the test design appropriately represents the content and cognitive emphasis reflected in the state's standards. Since the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act and the certification of accountability assessments through federal peer review practices, the content validity arguments supporting accountability have relied almost exclusively on the alignment of statewide assessments to state standards. It is assumed that if alignment does not hold, the scores will not provide valid inferences regarding the degree to which test takers have performed. Although alignment results are commonly used as evidence of test appropriateness, Polikoff (this issue) would argue that given the importance of alignment in policy decisions, research related to alignment is surprisingly limited. Few studies have addressed the adequacy of alignment methodologies and results as support for the inferences to be made (i.e., proficient on state standards). This paper uses an example of test taker performance (and common performance indicators) to investigate to what extent the degree of alignment impacts inferences made about performance (i.e., classification into performance levels, estimates of student ability, and student rank order).