Moving Beyond a Deficit Model to Describe and Promote the Career Development of At-Risk Youth

A theoretical framework for understanding the career maturity of diverse groups is needed since the career maturity construct has evolved using white, middle class samples (Cheatham, 1990). Krumboltz holds that career beliefs can be influenced by one's social environment (1991). If career beliefs were related to the career maturity of a diverse group, they could be used to provide a more coherent understanding of the unique social experiences that surround their career maturity. This study examined relationships between the career beliefs and the career maturity of academically at-risk students who were failing core academic courses. Several career beliefs were significantly related to the career maturity of the sample in this study such as the belief that obstacles can be overcome and college/occupation variation. The career beliefs construct appeared to clarify the role that social experiences played on the career maturity of the sample in this study.     

What Paves the Way to Conventional Language? The Predictive Value of Babble,Pointing, and Socioeconomic Status

A child's first words mark the emergence of a uniquely human ability. Theories of the developmental steps that pave the way for word production have proposed that either vocal or gestural precursors are key. These accounts were tested by assessing the developmental synchrony in the onset of babbling, pointing, and word production for 46 infants observed monthly between the ages of 9 and 18 months. Babbling and pointing did not develop in tight synchrony and babble onset alone predicted first words. Pointing and maternal education emerged as predictors of lexical knowledge only in relation to a measure taken at 18 months. This suggests a far more important role for early phonological development in the creation of the lexicon than previously thought.     

Quality of education and the demand for education — Evidence from developing countries

The relationship between quality and demand is analysed using data from various countries, with special emphasis on Burkina Faso, Mali, and Tanzania. Four types of educational quality are postulated: value, output, process and input quality. The relative importance of quality compared to external efficiency and costs is assessed. The paper is a reanalysis of existing studies. Qualitative data are complemented by simple analysis of educational statistics. The studies had different though over-lapping foci: one study explored reasons for non-enrolment, drop-out and exclusion from school under the umbrella theme of the quality of education. Another one emphasised social demand in rural areas, with quality one of a number of topics. A third study looked at attitudes towards education and educational strategies, restricting itself to parents. A primary level, the quality of education influences the demand for education. The relative importance of quality varies from one context to another. Quality influences the decision to enrol less than the decision to carry on. However, it affects enrolment to such an extent that moderate correlations have been observed between pass rates and repeater rates on the one hand, and enrolment rates on the other. Value quality is mainly related to enrolment. Output quality is the criterion for selecting a school or a school system. Output, process and input quality affect dropping out and irregular attendance. Repetition, justified on unsatisfactory output quality, is related to input quality. The decision to participate in education combines considerations of educational quality with an evaluation of costs, both direct costs and opportunity costs.     

From a System of Journals to a Web of Objects

Herbert Van de Sompel, Prototyping Team Leader, Research Library of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, took the audience on a journey from a paper-based scholarly communication system to a web of objects. Increasingly, the research process, not just its output, is web-based. Objects created and used as part of that process do not have the same sense of fixity that traditional publications had. Van de Sompel explored the problems inherent in the transition and the consequences of failing to proactively archive the full context of the scholarly record on the web.     

Qualitative aspects of gain on achievement tests

Summary and Conclusion The basic questions involved in this investigation were the effect of initial standing and item difficulty on the gain established on final over initial measures in achievement testing. The hypotheses were advanced that the use of gain discriminated against bright students on two counts; first, by limiting possibility for gain and second, that equal gains might really represent different levels of performance. It has been shown that the use of a measure of achievement, the effectiveness index, which is independent of initial standing, shows a higher positive correlation with intelligence than the correlation obtained between gain and intelligence. The use of partial correlation to hold the factor of initial standing constant raised the relation found between gain and intelligence in 11 out of 12 cases, indicating that the higher initial standing of brighter students tended to limit their performance. Further, it has been shown that the gain of bright students tends to be established on more difficult items. In addition, the film apparently facilitated the success of students with above average intelligence on difficult items since the relationship found between intelligence and gain or nongain on test items was markedly higher in experimental than in control sections. To the extent that the gains made on the tests employed in this investigation are representative of gains made on achievement tests in general, in pretest and posttest situations, it may be concluded that bright students are discriminated against when gain is the measure of performance. The bright students must overcome the twin difficulties of establishing their gain on more difficult items in competition with students who havemore items on which improvement, i.e., gain, may be established. It is obvious that groups and individuals differing widely in their initial performance on tests should not be compared using gain as a criterion unless there is some compensation for these factors. This paper funishes additional evidence relative to a statistical procedure—the “Effectiveness Index”—discussed by Hovland, Lumsdaine, and Sheffield inExperiments on Mass Communication. It was originally presented to Section Q of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at the St. Louis Meeting, December 1952. The Study was made possible by a grant from the University of Nebraska Research Council. Dr. Herbert A. Smith is Associate Professor of Secondary Education and Supervisor of Science, the University of Nebraska.