Identifying the Best Buys in U.S. Higher Education

Which U.S. institutions of higher education offer the best value to consumers? To answer this question, we evaluate U.S. institutions relative to a data envelopment analysis (DEA) multi-factor frontier based on 2000?C2001 data for 1,179 4-year institutions. The resulting DEA ??best buy?? scores allow the ranking of institutions by a weighted sum of institutional characteristics per dollar of average net price. The net price is calculated as tuition, fees, room, and board less per student financial aid. Institutional characteristics include SAT score, athletic expenditures, instructional expenditures, value of buildings, dorm capacity, and student body characteristics. The DEA scores indicate the distance of each institution from the ??best buy?? frontier for the chosen characteristics, providing an objective means of ranking institutions as the best values in higher education.     

Electronic Document Delivery: The Ibadan University Library Experience

New information communication technologies, such as the Internet and electronic publishing, not only enhance the range of publications that libraries can provide for their users but also increase the speed with which such requests can be met. This article describes the development of electronic document delivery (EDD) at the Kenneth Dike Library at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. A successful EDD program depends upon good intranet and Internet network systems, document availability, user awareness and training, and ease of use. The major challenge to this service is inconsistent power supply, which the university is addressing with the aid of a grant from the MacArthur Foundation for backup electric generators and a university solar energy project. It is hoped that this will assure better and more reliable power service in support of EDD in future. New information delivery regulations and laws guiding adequate service will also emerge but must be properly applied for effective and positive results.     

Television's value to the American family member

It is difficult to evaluate accurately the values a given medium has to a given audience. It is relatively easy to theorize about attributes, but the subjective nature of values requires recourse to the members of the medium's audience for adequate information. The following report, which is part of a series of studies on leisure time activity and mass media attention, contrasts the various mass media against one another in terms of relative rather than absolute value.     

Problems in Scoring,Agreement among Raters,and Internal Consistency of Selected Marker Tests

Selected Marker Tests, of Educational Testing Service and Sheridan Psychological Services, Inc., were examined in terms of problems in scoring and internal consistency. The tests were administered orally to 116 sixth and seventh grade students. Problems in scoring were discovered and changes were suggested. The agreement between two independent judges on part scores was high. Twenty-one of 28 correlations were .90 and above. Item correlations with part and total scores, using Cureton’s correction, were frequently very low, and many items did not meet the desirable difficulty level for norm-referenced tests. The study suggests that, with the sample used, the problem is not one of agreement among judges but, rather, one of item reliability.     

TRIMODAL READING INSTRUCTION WITH INEFFICIENT LEARNERS

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the teaching effectiveness of the Trimodal Programmed Instruction in Reading with those inefficient learners who were making limited or no progress in their elementary school reading programs despite other remedial procedures. Based on their performance on a criterion pretest, nine second, third, and fouth graders were assigned to either a full remedial program, consisting of 25 lessons or to a partial program consisting of between 14 and 17 programs. Each child interacted at the Teledesk (the main piece of equipment) on a daily basis, for approximately 15 minutes; one program per day was permitted. The Trimodal Reading Instruction approach employs a programmed technique using the whole word method of reading instruction. Word recognition and comprehension skills are fostered by having the pupil actively construct sentences by placing plaques associated with whole words on an interface. A policy of limited supervision and limited directive guidance was employed. Results indicated that subjects in both full and partial programs dramatically improved on word recognition and comprehension tasks, when post‐tested.     

Handgrip strength and health outcomes: Umbrella review of systematic reviews with meta-analyses of observational studies

PurposeThe aim of the present study was to assess both the credibility and strength of evidence arising from systematic reviews with meta-analyses of observational studies on handgrip strength and health outcomes.MethodsAn umbrella review of systematic reviews with meta-analyses of observational studies was conducted. We assessed meta-analyses of observational studies based on random-effect summary effect sizes and their p values, 95% prediction intervals, heterogeneity, small-study effects, and excess significance. We graded the evidence from convincing (Class I) to weak (Class IV).ResultsFrom 504 articles returned in a search of the literature, 8 systematic reviews were included in our review, with a total of 11 outcomes. Overall, nine of the 11 of the outcomes reported nominally significant summary results (p < 0.05), with 4 associations surviving the application of the more stringent p value (p < 10⁻⁶). No outcome presented convincing evidence. Three associations showed Class II evidence (i.e., highly suggestive): (1) higher handgrip values at baseline were associated with a minor reduction in mortality risk in the general population (n = 34 studies; sample size = 1,855,817; relative risk = 0.72, 95% confidence interval (95%CI): 0.67–0.78), (2) cardiovascular death risk in mixed populations (n = 15 studies; relative risk = 0.84, 95%CI: 0.78–0.91), and (3) incidence of disability (n = 7 studies; relative risk = 0.76, 95%CI: 0.66–0.87).ConclusionThe present results show that handgrip strength is a useful indicator for general health status and specifically for early all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, as well as disability. To further inform intervention strategies, future research is now required to fully understand mechanisms linking handgrip strength scores to these health outcomes.