The General Nature and Applicability of Index Numbers for Education

The performances of predictive discriminant analysis (PDA) and logistic regression (LR) for the 2-group classification problem were compared. The authors used a fully crossed 3-factor experimental design (sample size, group proportions, and equal or unequal covariance matrices) and 2 data patterns. When the 2 groups had equal covariance matrices, PDA and LR performed comparably for the conditions of both equal and unequal group proportions. When the 2 groups had unequal covariance matrices (4:1, as implemented in this study) and very different group proportions, PDA and LR differed somewhat with regard to the classification error rates of the 2 groups, but the classification error rates of the 2 methods for the total sample remained comparable. Sample size played a relatively minor role in the classification accuracy of the 2 methods, except when LR was used under relatively small sample-size conditions.     

Toward A Curriculum in Environmental Education

Abstract

Staff stress can be detrimental to staff unity and overall program effectiveness in resident camps. Ten university students responsible for planning, implementing, and evaluating programs were observed and tested for evidence of stress-level factors and any relationship of these to program performance. Several administrations of the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist (MAACL), staff self-reports, and unobtrusive observations were undertaken to identify stressful situations. The data suggest that the group level of anxiety diminishes as succeeding resident groups are encountered. Slight increases in depression and hostility relate to length of overall program and staff responsibilities. Camp administrators need to be aware of factors which can help eliminate staff stress.     

Thirty Schools Tell Their Story,adventure in American Education,Volume V. Harper and Brothers,New York, 1943. $4.00. 802 pp

Communication: Communication, the Miracle of Shared Living by Dora V. Smith. The Macmillan Company. 105 pp. $2.50.

Education: Administration In Profile For School Executives by Harlan L. Hagman and Alfred Schwartz. Harper &; Brothers. 308 pp. $3.50.

Basal Reading Instruction by Gerald A. Yoakam. McGraw-Hill Book Company. 357 pp. $4.50.

Social Studies: A Half Century of International Problems by F. R. Coudert, Columbia University Press, 352 pp., $4.00.

Approaches to an Understanding of World Affairs. Howard R. Anderson, editor. The National Council for the Social Studies, 1954. 478 pp. $3.50 paper, $4.00 cloth.

Teaching World Understanding, edited by Ralph G. Preston. Prentice-Hall, 207 pp. $3.95.

Travel: Around India by John Seymour. John Day Company, 310 pp. $4.95.

Dependent Baggage—Destination Geamany by Marie Di Mario Warm. The Macmillan Company, New York, N.Y. 245 pp. $3.50.     

A cross-cultural comparison of numeracy skills using a written and an interactive arithmetic test

This study applied two arithmetic tests, one written and one one computer-based interactive, to samples of primary school children from two populations, one suburban non-Aboriginal and one rural Aboriginal. The results from the written test were significantly (p?&;lt;?0.001) better for the non-Aboriginal children than for the Aboriginal children. This was not the case with the results from the computer-based interactive test. The study used Rasch-based methodology to reduce the results from the two tests to a common scale, to ascertain whether the Aboriginal children performed better (in relation to the non-Aboriginal children) in the computer-based than in the written test. The study found that this was the case, and concluded that the results from the computer-based test exhibited less cultural bias against the Aboriginal children than the written test.