University class size: Is smaller better?

This study investigates the relationship between class size and achievement at the college level. Recent meta-analyses have found a strong relationship between class size and student achievement, but few of the studies examined class size larger than 40 or university-age populations. This analysis examines a university's testing-center data-archives representing 305 sections from 24 different courses. Section sizes ranged from 13 to 1,006. A total of 16,230 test scores were analyzed. The results of this investigation reveal that at the college level, class size may be less important an influence on student achievement than some educators have thought.     

Changing Resource and Organizational Patterns: The Challenge of Resourcing Education in the 21st Century

This paper looks at the changing patterns ofresourcing (financing) education in thetwenty-first century. It identifies five trendsthat are altering the resourcing and provisionof education through their impact on theorganization of education systems. As aconsequence of these trends, it puts forwardthe view that the role of government ischanging from direct provider of education toone of regulator of the education industry.     

Instructions for Authors

Instructions for Authors

Instructions for Authors     

The Ethnic Composition of Nursery Classes and its Effect on Children's Adjustment to Nursery

Teachers’ perceptions of how children had adjusted to school were collected from two groups of classes; one group had a 100% British White population, the other was made up of 26% British White, 54% British Asian, 15% British Afro‐Caribbean and 5% from other groupings. Results showed that the children in the multi‐ethnic classes, the girls and morning attenders were rated by the teachers as having settled significantly better than the British White sample, the boys and afternoon attenders. Possible causes for these findings could lie in the school induction policies, the social makeup of the groups, the teacher subjectivity in completing the schedule or the mix of children from different backgrounds on the one hand compared to the more monoethnic makeup on the other.     

Level of Internet Use Among Science Teachers Involved in a Professional Development Project

This study examined the level of instructional use of Internet among science teachers involved with an in-service professional development project. An instrument on Level of Use of innovation was modified for the study. A criterion sample of teachers to be interviewed via telephone was randomly selected from a pool of 347 K–12 teachers. Somers' d and contingency coefficients were determined to see whether any relationship exists between a teacher's Level of Use and the following categories: (a) amount of experience with the Internet; (b) availability of resources support and access to the Internet in classroom and at home; (c) number of teacher and student users at school, (d) gender; and (e) type of school. Results of step-wise multiple regression indicate that classroom access, instructional experience of using Internet with students, availability of resource support and number of teacher users at school are the best predictors of teacher's Level of Use. Chi square test for comparisons between groups of completers and noncompleters of On-Line West Virginia K–12 RuralNet courses also revealed that a lack of classroom access to Internet and lack of resource/technical support at school contributed significantly to lower level of use among noncompleters.     

Temperamental Emotionality Attributes as Antecedents of Children's Social Information Processing

This study examined temperament dimensions of emotion as precursors of children's social information processing (SIP) of stressful peer events. Two hundred and forty-three preschool children (M = 4.60 years) and their primary caregivers participated in two measurement occasions spaced 2 years apart. Observations of temperamental anger, fearful distress, positive affect, and effortful control were assessed in multiple laboratory tasks across two visits at Wave 1. SIP assessments from vignettes of peer challenges were repeated across two waves and included: eye tracking measures of attention to peer emotion displays, hostile attribution bias, hostile solutions, and subjective distress. Findings from structural equation models with inclusion of autoregressive controls indicated that effortful control, fear, and anger predicted subsequent changes in specific SIP dimensions.     

An NCME Instructional Module on Polytomous Item Response Theory Models

A polytomous item is one for which the responses are scored according to three or more categories. Given the increasing use of polytomous items in assessment practices, item response theory (IRT) models specialized for polytomous items are becoming increasingly common. The purpose of this ITEMS module is to provide an accessible overview of polytomous IRT models. The module presents commonly encountered polytomous IRT models, describes their properties, and contrasts their defining principles and assumptions. After completing this module, the reader should have a sound understating of what a polytomous IRT model is, the manner in which the equations of the models are generated from the model's underlying step functions, how widely used polytomous IRT models differ with respect to their definitional properties, and how to interpret the parameters of polytomous IRT models.     

Choosing in schools: locating the benefits of specialisation

Recent policy in England has suggested that educational outcomes will be raised if schools specialise in particular subjects. In contrast, calls for the reform of 16–19 education have suggested that these outcomes will be improved if students become less specialised in their studies. At present, there is a limited evidence base from which to judge these arguments. In particular, we do not know the extent to which students’ achievements in 16–19 education are higher when they choose subjects which play to their perceived strengths. We also do not know whether students are more likely to choose to study subjects taught by more effective departments. That is, outcomes may be affected by the relative strengths of students or departments in circumstances where there is freedom to choose. In this paper we provide evidence of the existence and strength of these relationships. This evidence suggests that reducing the scope within schools for specialisation or competition will reduce average student attainment and these effects ought to be taken into account when evaluating alternative curriculum policies.     

Problem-Attack Behavior and Sex,Prior Teaching Experience,and College Preparation of Elementary School Principals

A modified form of Judgment Analysis (JAN) was used as a vehicle for capturing a group or collective teacher effectiveness policy of selected students at the University of Northern Colorado. Regardless of the grouping of students (grade level of students, reasons for taking the course, school or college in which the students were enrolled) one policy emerged. This policy can be described as a student concern for the personal characteristics of the instructor (instructor’s interest and enthusiasm, interpersonal relationships, ability to communicate the subject, ability to interest and motivate students). The instructor’s classroom management characteristics and his professional qualities (attitude, knowledge, and preparation) did not make a significant unique contribution to this policy.     

Pricing policy and the college choice process

Following the presentation of a marketing management paradigm for higher educational institutions, this paper discuses some aspects of the pricing policy process in colleges and universities. A statistical model of the college choice process is developed, and some empirical results related to the effects of price, among other factors, on the collegechoice decision-making behavior process of high school seniors are presented and interpreted. The two most important factors affecting the college choice process are seen to be college quality and price-related considerations. Marketing implications of these results are discussed.Presented at the Annual Forum of the Association For Institutional Research, Houston, Texas, May 1978.