The Impact of an SES-Based Model on a College's Undergraduate Admissions Outcomes

In Grutter vs. Bollinger, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the use of race as one factor, among many in admissions decisions is constitutional. It is not known, however, whether future legal opinions will continue to uphold the use of affirmative action policies. Some have argued that class-based preferences can achieve many of the same goals as in affirmative action while being more likely to withstand legal challenges. To date, no empirical studies have been conducted on the potential impact of a class-based admissions policy if implemented at an undergraduate institution. This paper reports on a study at a selective public college and compares a number of outcomes under three admissions models: the original admissions decisions, a purely academic model, and an socio-economic status (SES)-based model. The findings showed that use of the SES-based model would have led to a more academically qualified class than in the original admitted class while maintaining substantially greater student diversity that was found under the academic model. An admissions policy based on preferences for socio-economically disadvantaged applicants appears to hold promise for other colleges and universities with similar institutional and applicant characteristics. The ideas and research design reported in this paper are based on the doctoral dissertation study of the second author, Undergraduate Admissions Models Incorporating Socioeconomic Factors (Johnson, 2000).     

死神与诗人

这首诗出自于英国 17 世纪伟大诗人约翰·邓恩 ( 1572￣1631) 的《神圣十四行诗》。约翰·邓恩系玄学派代表诗人, 其诗歌通常给人留下一种舞台戏剧的印象。诗的开篇大都是以语言通俗、言辞激烈的戏剧性对话或争论的形式出现, 渲染了戏剧的舞台气氛, 在读者中产生戏剧悬念, 既而推动诗歌主题步步升华。诗人独具匠心, 在诗歌中巧妙运用戏剧表现手法, 通过使用一系列注重智力, 意象华丽且富含戏剧对比性因素的比喻, 将激情与推理融为一体, 给诗歌注入了新的活力, 向读者传达了奇妙的艺术效果。     

How to decide how to decide

This article attempts to characterize the general problem of selecting methods for decision-making. The traditional rational approach to choice is from economics, which offers expected-value maximization. The task environment of decision method selection, however, does not seem to provide the data necessary for carrying out the expected-value calculations. Our approach uses methods from the field of cognitive science. We develop the notion of domain size in fields such as chess, borrowing the concept of a chunk from human memory. We then develop a heuristic rule for choiceamongmethods. We propose this rule as one of many possible rules.     

A sociocultural perspective on mediated activity in third grade science

This ethnographic study of a third grade classroom examined elementary school science learning as a sociocultural accomplishment. The research focused on how a teacher helped his students acquire psychological tools for learning to think and engage in scientific practices as locally defined. Analyses of classroom discourse examined both how the teacher used mediational strategies to frame disciplinary knowledge in science as well as how students internalized and appropriated ways of knowing in science. The study documented and analyzed how students came to appropriate scientific knowledge as their own in an ongoing manner tied to their identities as student scientists. Implications for sociocultural theory in science education research are discussed. John Reveles is an assistant professor in the Elementary Education Department at California State University, Northridge. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2005. Before pursuing his Ph.D., he worked as a bilingual elementary school teacher for 3 years. His research focuses on the development of scientific literacy in elementary school settings; sociocultural influences on students' academic identity; equity of access issues in science education; qualitative and quantitative research methods. Within the Michael D. Eisner College of Education, he teaches elementary science curriculum methods courses, graduate science education seminars, and graduate research courses. Gregory Kelly is a professor of science education at Penn State University. He is a former Peace Corps Volunteer and physics teacher. He received his Ph.D. from Cornell in 1994. His research focuses on classroom discourse, epistemology, and science learning. This work has been supported by grants from Spencer Foundation, National Science Foundation, and the National Academy of Education. He teaches courses concerning the uses of history, philosophy, sociology of science in science teaching and teaching and learning science in secondary schools. He is editor of the journal Science Education. Richard Durán is a Professor in the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara. His research and publications have been in the areas of literacy and assessment of English Language Learners and Latino students. He has also conducted research on after school computer clubs, technology and learning as part of the international UC Links Network. With support from the Kellogg Foundation, he is implementing and investigating community and family-centered intervention programs serving the educational progress of Latino students in the middle and high school grades.     

The nexus between college choice and persistence

Initial student commitments have long been considered an influence on persistence, but the reasons why students choose to attend a college have seldom been considered as dimensions of initial commitments that could influence persistence processes and outcomes. This study used NPSAS-87 to examine the influence of finance-related reasons for choosing a college on persistence decisions. The findings include (1) finance-related choices have direct and indirect influences on whether students persist in college; and (2) market-based, monetary measures of financial aid, tuition costs, housing costs, and other living costs have a substantial direct effect on persistence.     

Humanizing the use of technology in education: A re-examination

Educators are currently attempting to integrate computers into the classroom, in order to humanize their use. The strategies that have been adopted, however, are primarily logistical and ignore the philosophy that underpins this technology. It is argued in this paper that educational technology will not be humanized until it is understood to be sustained by a philosophy other than technological rationality, and thus is provided with a human base. The life-world (Lebenswelt) is identified as a proper foundation for technology, because technological rationality is illustrated to be a modality of human expression. When this is the case, technology is placed in the service of humankind, for it cannot be conceived as the genesis of personal freedom.

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Zusammenfassung Gegenwärtig sind Pädagogen um die Integration von Computern ins Klassenzimmer bemüht, um deren Gebrauch zu humanisieren. Die dabei angewandten Strategien sind jedoch primär logistisch und ignorieren die theoretischen Voraussetzungen, auf die sich diese Technologie stützt. In diesem Bericht wird argumentiert, daß die Bildungstechnologie so lange nicht humanisiert wird, bis sie nicht in einem anderen Sinn als dem der technologischen Rationalität verbunden wird und auf eine humane Grundlage gestellt ist. Die Lebenswelt wird als ein wahres Fundament der Technologie identifiziert, da technologische Rationalität als eine Modalität menschlichen Ausdrucks dargestellt wird. Wenn dies der Fall ist, wird die Technologie in den Dienst der Menschheit gestellt, da sie nicht als Nemesis persönlicher Freiheit angesehen werden kann.

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Résumé Les pédagogues, aujourd'hui, tentent de faire entrer l'ordinateur dans la salle de classe, afin de ramener son utilisation à l'échelle humaine. Cependant, les stratégies adoptées demeurent de l'ordre de la logistique et ignore tout de la philosophie qui étaye cette technologie. Dans cet article, il est argué que l'on ne saurait humaniser la technologie au sein de l'enseignement, tant qu'il n'est pas entendu qu'une philosophie autre que la rationalité technologique la sous-tend, la dotant ainsi d'un fondement humain; l'environnement naturel (Lebenswelt) constitue la véritable base de la technologie car la rationalité ne représente qu'une modalité de l'expression humaine. Dans ce cas, la technologie est placée au service de l'humanité et ne saurait être conçue comme sanction de la liberté individuelle.