The venture capital market and technological innovation

This paper was stimulated by assertions that technological innovation in the United States by new or small firms is being delayed or altogether stifled by an inadequate supply of capital for such firms. Analysis of available data on the performance and activities of public venture capital sources and information supplied by knowledgeable people in the field provided little support, on strictly economic grounds, for the argument that a major problem exists. The data, however, are extremely thin and inadequate to suport recommendations for major policy changes.     

Local Dependence in an Operational CAT: Diagnosis and Implications

The accuracy of CAT scores can be negatively affected by local dependence if the CAT utilizes parameters that are misspecified due to the presence of local dependence and/or fails to control for local dependence in responses during the administration stage. This article evaluates the existence and effect of local dependence in a test of Mathematics Knowledge. Diagnostic tools were first used to evaluate the existence of local dependence in items that were calibrated under a 3PL model. A simulation study was then used to evaluate the effect of local dependence on the precision of examinee CAT scores when the 3PL model was used for selection and scoring. The diagnostic evaluation showed strong evidence for local dependence. The simulation suggested that local dependence in parameters had a minimal effect on CAT score precision, while local dependence in responses had a substantial effect on score precision, depending on the degree of local dependence present.     

Keeping company: Educating for online friendship

The possibility of online Aristotelian virtue friendships via social network sites continues to be raised by philosophers, but as yet this has not been positioned within the realm of children or adolescents, who are known to be amongst the largest users of social media. Governmental agencies across the globe still struggle to define the boundaries of online usage for children, often depending on school-based curricula highlighting ‘safe-guarding’ online or some form of character education. This, however, often leaves the philosophical thinking behind virtual relationships as incompletely addressed in educational theory, policy and practice, despite there being some very real difficulties for children. Utilising the insights of Aristotle on friendship, I offer a view that may hold potential for a philosophically based policy. I outline three different ways this philosophical literature could have implications for education and indicate the types of policy that each might entail. I will contend that there are three distinct stakeholders here that can be identified as having a significant role to play in what we should do: the schools themselves, educational researchers and policy writers. Finally, I suggest ways in which research, policy and practice might link together.     

BOOK REVIEWS

E DUCATIONAL P HILOSOPHIES AND D EMOCRATIC F AITH . By James W. Skelton.
A DULT E DUCATION . By P. H. Sheats, C. D. Jayne, and R. B. Spence.
P HILOSOPHY AND THE I DEOLOGICAL C ONFLICT . By Charles S. Seely.
G ANDHI : H IS L IFE AND M ESSAGE FOR THE W ORLD . By Louis Fischer.     

Sensory, cognitive, and linguistic factors in the early academic performance of elementary school children: The Benton-IU project

Standardized sensory, perceptual, linguistic, intellectual, and cognitive tests were administered to 470 children, approximately 96% of the students entering the first grade in the four elementary schools of Benton County, Indiana, over a 3-year period (1995--1997). The results of 36 tests and subtests administered to entering first graders were well described by a 4-factor solution. These factors and the tests that loaded most heavily on them were reading-related skills (phonological awareness, letter and word identification); visual cognition (visual perceptual abilities, spatial perception, visual memory); verbal cognition (language development, vocabulary, verbal concepts); and speech processing (the ability to understand speech under difficult listening conditions). A cluster analysis identified 9 groups of children, each with a different profile of scores on the 4 factors. Within these groups, the proportion of students with unsatisfactory reading achievement in the first 2 years of elementary school (as reflected in teacher-assigned grades) varied from 3% to 40%. The profiles of factor scores demonstrated the primary influence of the reading-related skills factor on reading achievement and also on other areas of academic performance. The second strongest predictor of reading and mathematics grades was the visual cognition factor, followed by the verbal cognition factor. The speech processing factor was the weakest predictor of academic achievement, accounting for less than 1% of the variance in reading achievement. This project was a collaborative effort of the Benton Community School Corporation and a multidisciplinary group of investigators from Indiana University.