Mandating pre-graduation competence among college and university undergraduates

Assessment, remediation and basic skills testing are key words to many university administrators and state legislators these days. In response to questions from the public about the costs and quality of higher education, some states are mandating basic skills testing and encouraging comprehensive universities to provide remedial programs for students who do not pass the tests. Texas House Bill 2182 is an example of this trend and is discussed in light of ten key issues posed by assessment experts. On most issues, the house bill avoids anticipated pitfalls and provides enough leeway for colleges to design their own reforms according to their individual needs. This may not represent the total solution, but it is a starting point for colleges to develop comprehensive assessment programs over time.Laurelyn Irving Farmer has been working in student services on university campuses since 1978. She received her Bachelors' degree in Sociology from Purdue University, her Masters' in Social Work from the University of Wisconsin and is currently completing a doctorate in Higher Education Administration at the University of North Texas. For the past five years, she has been the Assistant Director for Residence Life at The University of Texas at Arlington.     

Use of interactive–informal assessment practices: New Zealand secondary students' conceptions of assessment

This study aimed to investigate how students' conceptions of assessment relate to one another, how students define assessment, and how student conceptions of assessment relate to their definitions of assessment. A nationally representative sample of New Zealand secondary students (N = 705) responded to a 45-item Conceptions of Assessment inventory and a list of 12 assessment practices. Well-fitting measurement models were found. The more students agreed that assessment was to help them improve the more they associated assessment with teacher-controlled practices. Further, the more students perceived assessment as irrelevant the more they defined it as interactive–informal practices. Thus, more student-oriented practices were conceived as creating a positive social environment that was irrelevant to learning.     

Acute effects of passive muscle stretching on sprint performance

The results of previous research have shown that passive muscle stretching can diminish the peak force output of subsequent maximal isometric, concentric and stretch-shortening contractions. The aim of this study was to establish whether the deleterious effects of passive stretching seen in laboratory settings would be manifest in a performance setting. Sixteen members (11 males, 5 females) of a Division I NCAA track athletics team performed electronically timed 20 m sprints with and without prior stretching of the legs. The experiment was done as part of each athlete's Monday work-out programme. Four different stretch protocols were used, with each protocol completed on a different day. Hence, the test period lasted 4 weeks. The four stretching protocols were no-stretch of either leg (NS), both legs stretched (BS), forward leg in the starting position stretched (FS) and rear leg in the starting position stretched (RS). Three stretching exercises (hamstring stretch, quadriceps stretch, calf stretch) were used for the BS, FS and RS protocols. Each stretching exercise was performed four times, and each time the stretch was maintained for 30 s. The BS, FS and RS protocols induced a significant (P < 0.05) increase (approximately 0.04 s) in the 20 m time. Thus, it appears that pre-event stretching might negatively impact the performance of high-power short-term exercise.     

Book reviews

Henry Holt & Co.     

Parental Participation: Essential Partners in Guidance

The relationship between parents and schools has in recent years been a controversial and contradictory one. Here Barrie Irving discusses one dimension that impinges on this relationship—vocational guidance—and how interactions between teachers and parents could be made more productive, particularly from the perspective of parents. Having suggested that often the interchange of information and ideas is limited by the attitudes and perceived interests of both schools and parents, Irving goes on to focus on a particular issue, the fact that although parents are given information about their children, they are rarely if ever given the means to develop on this.     

Politics and publishing in a democratic society: Technical breakthroughs and research agendas

Publishing flourishes best in a democratic society. Technological changes alter the relationship of forces so that opportunities for publishing expand. A broader range of information channels, for example, increases choice and makes authoritarian rule more difficult. Publishing also enhances democracy when decisions are made on the basis of merit rather than top-down legislation. Research should reflect awareness of the interaction of publishing and politics. Such areas as the relationship between public and private sectors, the impact of internationalization, non-U.S. ownership of information, mergers and acquisitions, and conflict between the First Amendment and copyright law, are examples of areas in which democratic outcomes are critical. Decision making in publishing would benefit from heightened awareness of the political consequences of publishers’ activities. Irving Louis Horowithz is the author ofCommunicating Ideas: The Politics of Publishing Mary E. Curtis has written widely on subjects of concern to professional publishing.     

Liking and learning from educational television

Summary The WKAR-TV Program Analyzer,an electric rating summaration device,was used to test a inescope of a composite television program for farm men and homemakers entitledTown and Country. Additional phases of the experiment involved interviews with each group tested on the Analyzer and completion of a questionaire by each subject. The subjects consisted of 20 farm men, 20 rural homemakers and 20 urban homemakers. The WKAR-TV Program Analyzer tests included 10 subjects in each group. Testing the hypothesis that “like-dislike” ratings of a TV kinescope shown as a film correlate negatively with “I am learning” ratings, the author showed that the “liking” scale measured different attributes of the program than did the “learning” scale. Irving R. Merrill is Director of Research at TV Station WKAR-TV, Michigan State University.     

An examination of the effect of customized reading modules on diverse secondary students’ reading comprehension and motivation

This research sought to add to a body of knowledge that is severely underrepresented in the scientific literature, the effects of technological tools on reading comprehension and reading motivation in diverse secondary students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. The study implemented an independent silent reading (ISR) program across a 5-month semester in an urban public high school and included 145 participants from nine 10th grade literature classes. The control group took part in no ISR, one treatment group participated in weekly ISR read from a textbook, and another treatment group participated in weekly ISR read from a computer module designed to address essential components of reading. Students were measured on global reading comprehension, text-specific reading assessments, and reading motivation. After controlling for initial skill and disposition levels, the results indicated that students from both ISR groups made greater gains than the control group in global reading comprehension, while the computer reading module group outperformed the textbook group and the control on text-specific assignments and increased their reading motivation to a greater degree than those in the other conditions. This research offers much-needed data on secondary students?? reading achievement and disposition and provides evidence that ISR implemented through the use of instructional technology and cognitive tools has broad potential to address development in these areas.