Deconstructing Remediation in Community Colleges: Exploring Associations Between Course-Taking Patterns, Course Outcomes, and Attrition from the Remedial Math and Remedial Writing Sequences

Each year, a sizeable percentage of community college students enroll in remedial coursework to address skill deficiencies in math, writing, and/or reading. Unfortunately, the majority of these students do not attain college-level competency in the subjects in which they require remedial assistance. Moreover, students whose point of entry into the remedial sequence is at the lower end of the hierarchy of skill suffer the lowest rates of attainment by far. Yet, to date, we do not understand fully why students who begin at the lower end of the remedial sequence are so much less likely than are students who begin at the higher end to attain college-level competency. The purpose of this study is to illuminate the junctures in the remedial sequences in math and writing at which meaningful attrition of students is occurring and, in particular, the junctures at which ??low-skill?? remedial students suffer differential attrition relative to ??high-skill?? remedial students. To accomplish this end, I use data that address students in California??s community colleges to examine three ways of characterizing and explaining the differential in college-level skill attainment between low- and high-skill remedial math students and, separately, between low- and high-skill remedial writing students. The three characterizations include nonspecific attrition, skill-specific attrition, and course-specific attrition. I find that each of these characterizations contributes to explaining the differential in college-level skill attainment between low- and high-skill remedial students.     

STANDARDIZING TRAINING INSTITUTIONS FOR RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL WORKERS

The progressive spirit of the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) spawned a myriad of graduate departments of religious education in American Catholic colleges and universities. These departments evolved to include other master degrees (e.g., pastoral studies, pastoral counseling, divinity, spirituality, and social justice). As the numbers of students in religious education degree programs significantly diminished, the degree designation in religious education was often terminated. Today, an ever increasing number of religious education practitioners in the Catholic context do not have graduate degrees in religious education. This ongoing reality significantly alters the field of religious education and its practice in the Catholic context.     

Place conditioning with d-amphetamine: The effect of the CS-UCS interval and evidence of a place avoidance

In Experiment 1, a dose-response study of place conditioning with amphetamine was conducted. Male Sprague-Dawley rats receiving 0.0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.5, 2.0, 5.0, 7.5, or 10.0 mg/kg of d-amphetamine underwent 104-day cycles of place conditioning. On alternate days, each rat was injected with its designated dose of amphetamine while confined to its originally nonpreferred end of a three-compartment, straight alley box. On intervening days, each rat was injected with saline while confined to its originally preferred compartment. Following each 4-day cycle, a choice test was administered in which each rat was allowed 20 min of access to the entire alley box. Doses of amphetamine (≥0.5 mg/kg) induced a significant avoidance of the compartment in which amphetamine had been administered. In Experiment 2, animals received 0.0, 0.5, 2.0, or 5.0 mg/kg of amphetamine and underwent place conditioning procedures identical to those for the animals in Experiment 1. Unlike in Experiment 1, the animals were given a single choice test following 104-day place conditioning cycles. All groups that received amphetamine exbibited-a-eonditioned place avoidance. In Experiment 3, the effect of various CS-UCS intervals on place conditioning with 2.0 mg/kg of amphetamine was examined. Animals that received amphetamine immediately following their removal from the chamber exhibited a conditioned place avoidance.     

Technical documents as rhetorical agency

This research argues that documents can become intermediaries which affect the relationships between disparate groups. Through a critical analysis of materials distributed during an online protest, the author traces the life of a single technical document, simultaneously describing how it was described during deliberation between several groups. Marcusean critical theory and rhetorical criticism framed the analysis. It is suggested that certain documents act as a locus between otherwise unaffiliated groups and that those documents become agents who can mediate deliberation. Further, it is suggested that document analysis can become an important aspect for interpreting group relationships. Future research examining the agency of documents is suggested.     

The role of test stimuli in matching to compound samples by pigeons

Two pigeons matched to sample in a three-key operant conditioning chamber. In Experiment I, two different kinds of samples were presented on the center key.Element samples were members of one of two sample sets — colors (a red or blue disk) or lines (a vertical or horizontal orientation of a set of white lines). These samples were followed by their respective sample sets on the side keys as comparison stimuli.Compound samples consisted of a set of lines superimposed on a colored disk. Following these samples, either sample set could appear as comparison stimuli. Matching to compound samples was less accurate than matching to element samples. One interpretation is that sharing of attention among elements of a compound sample weakened stimulus control by each element. A different interpretation is that an element sample controlled matching better because it was physically identical to a comparison stimulus whereas a compound sample was not. Experiments II–IV evaluated this “generalization decrement” alternative by testing element- vs. compound sample control with both element and compound comparison stimuli. Irrelevant elements were added to form compound comparison stimuli, some of which were physically identical to a preceding compound sample, but never identical to an element sample. In all experiments, the addition of irrelevant elements of comparison stimuli reduced sample control. However, the generalization decrement hypothesis failed to predict how differences in performance maintained by element and compound samples were affected by different tests of sample control. Matching accuracy appeared to be independently determined by the number of elements in a sample and whether irrelevant elements were present during tests of sample control.