Using Diagnostic Profiles to Describe Borderline Performance in Standard Setting

In test-centered standard-setting methods, borderline performance can be represented by many different profiles of strengths and weaknesses. As a result, asking panelists to estimate item or test performance for a hypothetical group study of borderline examinees, or a typical borderline examinee, may be an extremely difficult task and one that can lead to questionable results in setting cut scores. In this study, data collected from a previous standard-setting study are used to deduce panelists’ conceptions of profiles of borderline performance. These profiles are then used to predict cut scores on a test of algebra readiness. The results indicate that these profiles can predict a very wide range of cut scores both within and between panelists. Modifications are proposed to existing training procedures for test-centered methods that can account for the variation in borderline profiles.     

Typography for children may be inappropriately designed

We present four studies indicating that the size and design of the typeface in textual material for children aged 7–9 may impair speed of reading and comprehension, and measurement of reading attainment. The first study compared the speed with which sample sentences were comprehended. The sentences were printed in Arial font with an x‐height of 4.2 or 5.0 mm. The sentences were verified 9% more quickly when presented in the larger typeface. The second study compared reading age on the Salford Sentence Reading Test when the typeface remained at the initial size (x‐height 3.3 mm) throughout the test, and when it decreased in size as usual. The average reading age measured with the larger font was 4 months older. The final studies compared the font Sassoon Primary with the font Verdana and showed that Verdana was read and searched more quickly.     

The decision-making and changing behavioural dynamics of potential higher education students: the impacts of increasing tuition fees in England

Recent changes in the English tuition fee policies have spurred a debate on the impacts on student choices for higher education. Expectations range from a sharp decrease in participation in higher education to relatively little change in student demand. We surveyed 1549 year 12 sixth-form students from four institutions spread geographically across England. We have broadened the approach to the study of student choice by not only considering the impact of going to higher education or not, but have included in our choice scenarios the consideration of looking for cheaper higher education alternatives and of looking for higher education abroad. This brings our study from a focus on widening participation and access into the realm of the dynamics of increasing choice in a globalised world. The data suggest that financial issues are key influencers. We conclude that the English higher education system may be confronted with significant changes in student choice patterns, given the study’s finding that students show high levels of anxiety and consequently consider a much broader range of study options: within or outside higher education; in publicly funded or for-profit institutions; and in the UK or elsewhere.     

International student destination choice: the influence of home campus experience on the decision to consider branch campuses

Previous research has found that the country and institution choices of international students are greatly influenced by recommendations they receive from others who have experience of undertaking higher education overseas. For Western universities, it is of utmost importance to satisfy their international students, who can then encourage the next generation of international students to attend those same institutions. However, student satisfaction is not the only factor at play. Using a framework of ‘push and pull’ factors, rooted in the international student choice literature, this exploratory study investigates the determinants of destination choice of international students who decided to study at a university in the UK and examines their attitudes toward international branch campuses. The survey results and analyses suggest that overseas campuses could pose a considerable threat to home campuses in the competition for international students in the future.     

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS' ATTITUDES TOWARD DIFFERENT SUBJECTS

This study investigated the favorite subject to teach and enjoyment of teaching of 490 elementary school teachers (K–5) from two rural school districts in the southeastern United States. Reading and language arts were consistently ranked among the favorite and most enjoyed subjects to teach, whereas science and writing were consistently ranked among the least favorite and least enjoyed subjects to teach. However, the complexity of teachers' attitudes was evidenced by interactions with grade level and attitude measure that existed with mathematics, writing, and social studies. Further, primary-level teachers, compared to upper elementary teachers, were found to be more subject generalists in terms of their relative enjoyment for teaching all subjects. Implications for teacher preparation and policies related to elementary school teaching assignments are discussed.     

Citizens and/or consumers: mutations in the construction of concepts and practices of school choice

Recent research on school choice highlights the tendency among some White, middle‐class parents to engage with discourses of community responsibility and ethnic diversity as part of their responsibility and duty as choosers and who therefore exercise choice in ways that undercut the individualistic and self‐interested character framing governmental discourses and rationalities around choice. This article contributes to these debates through making visible the ways in which some mothers articulate and combine meanings and practices of choice that register contrasting and sometimes contradictory notions of active and responsible parenting. Drawing on data from a group of mothers of diverse social class and racial backgrounds, I explore how some mothers negotiate their school choice around a number of intersecting positions and relations that work across, as well as within, formulations of public–private, collective–individual, citizen–consumer, political–commercial. Through a consideration of the relationships in practice between these diverse elements, this article questions the analytic value of distinctions between citizen and consumer, community and individual as framings for understanding the motivations and aspirations shaping some mothers' school choices.     

Rehabilitation affirmed,rejected, and reaffirmed: Assessments of the effectiveness of offender treatment programs in criminology textbooks, 1956 to 1965 and 1983 to 1992

I examine the coverage of the debate about the effectiveness of offender treatment programs in 53 introductory criminology textbooks: 15 published from 1956 to 1965 and 38 published from 1983 to 1992. My data show that despite continuing skepticism in criminological research about the effectiveness of rehabilitation, most of the older texts and the most recent texts (those published from 1988 to 1992) rate treatment as effective when they take a position on the issue. My study also shows that criminology textbooks often give inadequate coverage to some of the key concepts, such as outcome measures and metaevaluation studies, in the debate about the effectiveness of rehabilitation. I conclude by discussing the implications of my findings for criminology students.     

JournaIism

MAKING NEWS by Martin Mayer (New York: Doubleday, 1987—$18.95)

BAD NEWS AT BLACK ROCK: THE SELL-OUT OF CBS NEWS by Peter McCabe (New York: Arbor House, 1987—$17.95)

SHARED VULNERABILITY: THE MEDIA AND AMERICAN PERCEPTIONS OF THE BHOPAL DISASTER by Lee Wilkins (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1987—$29.95)

SELLING SCIENCE: HOW THE PRESS COVERS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY by Dorothy Nelkin (New York: Freeman, 1987—$16.95)

COMMUNICATING POLITICS: MASS COMMUNICATIONS AND THE POLITICAL PROCESS edited by Peter Golding, et al. (New York: Holms & Meier, 1986 $35.00/17.50)

MAGAZINES: A BIBLIOGRAPHY FOR THEIR ANALYSIS, WITH ANNOTATIONS AND STUDY GUIDE by Fred K. Paine and Nancy E. Paine (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1987—$62.50)

THE TRAINING AND HIRING OF JOURNALISTS by Lee B. Becker, et al. (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1987—$29.50)

ETHICAL JOURNALISM by Philip Meyer (New York: Longman, 1987—$18.95, paper)