Law and Policy

THE LAW OF PUBLIC COMMUNICATION by Kent Middleton and Bill Chamberlin (New York: Longman, 1988—$34.95)

SEVEN DIRTY WORDS AND SIX OTHER STORIES: CONTROLLING THE CONTENT OF PRINT AND BROADCAST by Matthew Spitzer (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986—$15.00)

THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS DEREGULATION SOURCEBOOK edited by Stuart N. Brotman (Boston: Artech House, 1987—$60.00)

Besen, two Rand reports on intellectual property

GOVERNMENT INFORMATION: AN ENDANGERED RESOURCE OF THE ELECTRONIC AGE—THE FIRST ANNUAL STATE-OF-THE-ART INSTITUTE ( Special Libaries Assn, 1700 18th St NW, Washington, DC 20009—$21.75, paper)     

Text-Comprehension Strategies Based on Outlines

Prior to studying an instructional text, college students were given either a topically relevant outline or a topically irrelevant (control) outline and asked to generate propositions about the topics by drawing upon their existing knowledge. The results indicate that comprehension was highest among those students who activated relevant prior knowledge before text study, and who were again provided with an outline of that knowledge during testing. The measure of comprehension used here was total meaningful recall: It included text propositions plus valid elaborations based on the interaction of text information and students’ existing knowledge. The results of conceptual clustering analyses suggest that organization was one of the mechanisms by which topical outlines increased meaningful recall. Additional analyses conducted only on the elaborations indicate that students produced more of them during long-term (six week) recall than during immediate recall.     

Mushroom Delight

Angel：西兰花烩双菇是一道烩菜,做法和用料皆简单,具有营养丰富、汁香味鲜、滑嫩爽口等特点。双菇中的白玉菇只有秋冬两季才有,菇体洁白清香。质地细腻,口感爽滑,由于其味清淡,煮汤食用会略显乏味,需经拌炒或烩制等烹调法．方可衬托其鲜味。     

Forecasting: Exercises to Enhance Learning from Business Simulations

Forecasting the outputs of dynamic systems develops a richer understanding of relevant inputs and their interrelationships than merely observing them ex post. Academic business simulations foster students’ development of this critical competency, but learning outcomes can be significantly augmented with relatively simple, complementary exercises in forecasting. We introduce an in‐class forecasting exercise that is easily added to simulations or in any course where students gain from untangling the determinants of quantitative outcomes. The exercise also enhances opportunities for team‐building and spirited competition. Implementation details, evidence of effectiveness, and implications are discussed.     

Evaluating Content-Related Validity Evidence Using a Text-Based Machine Learning Procedure

Validity evidence based on test content is critical to meaningful interpretation of test scores. Within high-stakes testing and accountability frameworks, content-related validity evidence is typically gathered via alignment studies, with panels of experts providing qualitative judgments on the degree to which test items align with the representative content standards. Various summary statistics are then calculated (e.g., categorical concurrence, balance of representation) to aid in decision-making. In this paper, we propose an alternative approach for gathering content-related validity evidence that capitalizes on the overlap in vocabulary used in test items and the corresponding content standards, which we define as textual congruence. We use a text-based, machine learning model, specifically topic modeling, to identify clusters of related content within the standards. This model then serves as the basis from which items are evaluated. We illustrate our method by building a model from the Next Generation Science Standards, with textual congruence evaluated against items within the Oregon statewide alternate assessment. We discuss the utility of this approach as a source of triangulating and diagnostic information and show how visualizations can be used to evaluate the overall coverage of the content standards across the test items.