The pasteurized state: milk, health and the government of risk

In the late 1940s, Florence Sabin, a retired professor of medicine, returned to her home in Colorado to launch a massive public health campaign. Seeing "filthy milk" as an important vector of disease, she struggled not just pasteurized milk, but a pasteurized state government that was capable of regulating the milk industry. In the process, she brought managerialism into public health by fighting against the political machines and introducing Robert McNamara's systems analysis into government for the first time. Sabin's innovation, which united business, government and public health in new ways, transformed the way that public health is managed even today.     

Overskilling dynamics and education pathways

This paper uses panel data and econometric methods to estimate the incidence and the dynamic properties of overskilling among employed individuals. The paper begins by asking whether there is extensive overskilling in the labour market, and whether overskilling differs by education pathway. The answer to both questions is yes. The paper continues by asking whether overskilling is a self-perpetuating labour market state (state dependence), and whether state dependence differs by education pathway. Overskilled workers with a higher degree show the highest state dependence, while workers with vocational education show none. Workers with no post-school qualifications are somewhere between these two groups. The finding that higher degree graduates suffer the greatest overskilling state dependence, combined with the well-established finding that they also suffer the highest overskilling wage penalty, suggests that the cost of mismatch among this grouping are greater relative to vocationally qualified workers.     

Books Dealing with News

Delmor D. Dunn's Public Officials and the Press (Addison-Wesloy paporback, price unknown)

William O. Chittick's State Department, The Press, and Pressure Groups (Wiley-Interscience, $9.95)

Richard W. Lee, Politics and the Press (Acropolis Books (Washington D.C.), $3.95 in paperback, with a hardcover edition available, price unknown)

Curtis D. MacDougal's edited collection, Reporters Report Reporters (Iowa State, $6.50)

Ruth Adler, The Working Press (Bantam, $1.25)     

Knowledge, writing, and language outcomes for a reading comprehension and writing intervention

Many students struggle with gaining knowledge and writing about content text material and therefore require effective intervention. In a randomized controlled trial study, 77 low-achieving fourth-grade students received reading comprehension instruction or reading comprehension plus writing instruction or were assigned to a no-treatment control. Knowledge outcomes were evaluated through students’ retelling and performance on a standardized reading test. Written language-based outcomes were analyzed using a computer software program for semantic and syntactic measures. Analyses indicated that students in reading comprehension instruction and reading comprehension plus writing instruction outperformed the control group on oral and written retelling, a standardized reading test, and semantic measures. Syntactic measures, however, did not show statistically significant differences by treatment or control group. Implications for including language instruction and assessments within multi-component instruction are suggested.     

A half‐century of educational research

The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) is now in its 50th year. Its mission and structure are outlined. The research programme is reviewed, and work in three illustrative areas — testing, programme evaluation and integration of pupils with special educational needs — summarized. Its information and dissemination activities are described. Finally, issues for future concern are addressed.