The annual reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs: Revisiting the key to the United States Congressional Serial Set, 1824–1920

The Annual Reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, for the years 1824 through 1920, described the interactions between the American Indian tribes and the federal government. J. A. Jones (Jones, J. A. (1955). Key to the annual reports of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. Ethnohistory, 2, 58–64). Provided a key to these documents found in the United States Congressional Serial Set, but this tool contained a number of errors. This article provides a fresh look at this key, with particular focus upon the availability of these materials through the Readex Serial Set digital collection.     

What are association formation models?

In his presentation of the propositional account of associative learning, De Houwer (2009) argues that association formation models (AFMs) assume excitatory link representations and automatic learning processes. However, the application of AFMs to human causal and contingency learning has assumed propositional forms of representation, although excitatory link representations are also required to explain certain nonrational consequences of associative learning. Moreover, at least two of the AFMs that have been applied to human associative learning invoke processing with nonautomatic characteristics. In conclusion, the distinction between the propositional account and AFMs of associative learning lies not in the form of representations but in the specific details of the learning processes generating the associative representations.     

Better science through rhetoric: A new model and pilot program for training graduate student science writers

Graduate programs in the sciences offer minimal support for writing, yet there is an increasing need for scientists to engage with the public and policy makers. To address this need, the authors describe an innovative, cross-disciplinary, National Science Foundation (NSF)–funded training program in rhetoric and writing for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) graduate students and faculty at the University of Rhode Island. The program offers a theory-driven, flexible, scalable model that could be adopted in a variety of institutional contexts.     

The relationship between GEAR UP program involvement and Latina/o students’ performance on high-stakes tests

To assess the impact of a college preparation program, district-wide changes in high-stakes test pass rates are examined, followed by an examination of specific program elements that are associated with students’ score changes. Changes in pass rates for districts with and without services are compared for the Latina/o and overall student populations. This study also examines the relationship between hours of participation in various elements of the college preparation program and changes in test scores of low-income Latina/o students. Results indicate that key program elements related to improvements in test scores include participation in mentoring and summer programs.     

Teaching Poor Ethnic Minority Students: A Critical Realist Interpretation of Disempowerment

This article aims to supplement the literature on the role of school context with regards to the disempowerment of teachers in their work with poor ethnic minority students. We use a critical realist framework to analyse the empirical data collected for an in-depth school case study and we suggest the existence of real, interrelated, emergent and localised disempowering contextual factors.     

Linking early alert systems and student retention: a survival analysis approach

Higher education institutions are increasingly seeking technological solutions to not only enhance the learning environment but also support students. In this study, we explored the case of an early alert system (EAS) at a regional university engaged in both on-campus and online teaching. Using a total of 16,142 observations captured between 2011 and 2013, we examined the relationship between EAS and the student retention rate. The results indicate that when controlling for demographic, institution, student performance and workload variables, the EAS is able to identify students who have a significantly higher risk of discontinuing from their studies. This implies that early intervention strategies are effective in addressing student retention, and thus an EAS is able to provide actionable information to the student support team.     

PSYCHOSOCIAL FACTORS RELATED TO RETENTION AND EARLY DEPARTURE OF TWO-YEAR COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS

The present study is based on the theoretical model of college retention developed by Tinto (1975, 1987, 1993) and subsequent validation efforts of others (Bers and Smith, 1991; Munro, 1981; Pascarella and Chapman, 1983a, b; Pascarella and Terenzini, 1983, 1991). The first goal of the study was to assess the validity of the model on a two-year community college sample. The second goal was to extend and further refine the model by examining the mediational influences of a comprehensive set of psychosocial measures (i.e., life events occurring during the first semester of college, social support, self-esteem, social competence, personal conscientiousness, psychological well-being, and satisfaction with the academic, administrative, and social systems of college) on the constructs within Tinto's (1987, 1993) model. Results confirm the generalizability of the model to two-year community college populations. In addition, the structural equations model revealed that the psychosocial measures have both direct and indirect effects on college persistence.     

Teacher Knowledge and Skill Assessments and Teacher Compensation: An Overview of Measurement and Linkage Issues

This article summarizes the conclusions that the authors have drawn about the measurement quality and potential for linkage with teacher pay of three sets of teacher assessments—those developed or being developed by the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium, the Educational Testing Service, and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. To investigate the feasibility of using these assessments as a framework for a knowledge- and skill-based pay system, the Consortium for Policy Research in Education commissioned a set of papers for a conference in September 1997 on the measurement issues involved in assessing teaching practice to standards and linking these assessments to pay for knowledge and skills. The resulting papers, revised and published as articles in this journal, show that this approach is promising but that in some cases additional research on the measurement quality of the assessments is needed.