Projecting to the NAEP Scale: Results from the North Carolina End-of-Grade Testing Program

Data from the North Carolina End-of-Grade test of eighth-grade mathematics are used to estimate the achievement results on the scale of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Trial State Assessment. Linear regression models are used to develop projection equations to predict state NAEP results in the future, and the results of such predictions are compared with those obtained in the 1996 administration of NAEP Standard errors of the parameter estimates are obtained using a bootstrap resampling technique.     

Higher Education in Wales: The (Re-)emergence of a National System?

This paper explores historical patterns of change in participation in higher education in Wales, using as an organising framework Halsey's (1992) distinction between higher education as an administrative and as a social system. The nineteenth-century development of Welsh higher education was both part of a distinctive national political project and reflected the specificities of wider Welsh society. Expansion through the early and middle decades of the present century eroded this distinctiveness, as both the governance of Welsh higher education and patterns of student recruitment and participation became increasingly integrated into an 'England and Wales' system. The more recent expansion of higher education institutions in Wales, as well as the participation of Welsh students in higher education overall, has further accentuated this social integration into an 'England and Wales' system. Currently, Wales exhibits a pattern of participation which is unique amongst the home countries, whereby the Welsh higher education institutions serve very substantial numbers of students from England (and to a much lesser extent elsewhere), whilst a large proportion of Welsh students register at institutions in England. This indicates that there is now a significant disjuncture between an increasingly distinct pattern of governance of Welsh higher education and a pattern of participation which is massively integrated in the 'England and Wales' system.     

An Investigation of the Educational Needs of Health Sciences Library Manpower: Part VII: Summary and Conclusions

The major findings and conclusions of a survey of manpower in health sciences libraries of the United States in 1969 are summarized. Although there does not appear to be a serious manpower shortage in terms of budgeted positions which are unfilled (demand), the manpower situation can still be considered serious when we introduce into our evaluation of the situation the question of existing levels of training and the urgent requirement (need) to bring manpower levels to a point at which adequate information services can be provided to the whole health sciences community. This is the final paper in a series of papers on a manpower study which also summarizes and analyzes the manpower data obtained by the American Hospital Association survey of 1968 and presents a number of general conclusions and recommendations for manpower planning for health sciences libraries.     

The virtues of improbability: Joan Aiken

David Rees has written over 20 novels for children and young adults, includingThe Exeter Blitz (Carnegie Medal, 1978),The Green Bough of Liberty (Other Award, 1980), andThe Flying Island, just published. He has also taught at Exeter University and at California State University, San Jose. Rees has published two collections of critical essays on children's writers,The Marble in the Water andPainted Desert, Green Shade, and is currently at work on a third collection.     

“This School Helps A Lot”: Personal Agency Among Black Youth Within a Supportive School Environment

The Urban Review - We collected field observation notes, accessed student demographic data, and interviewed sixteen Black high school youth (50% male; Mage?=?16.1) to explore...     

Using Microcomputers in the Classroom

Drawing upon their practical experience as teachers and as teacher trainers, the authors describe development work done in a school for children with severe learning handicap. The project in question focused upon the communication and learning needs of a boy with athetoid cerebral palsy. Over a period of time, both the computer hardware (mainly communication devices) and software programmes were developed which have made an incalculable contribution to the boy's contact with his teachers and his fellow‐pupils. The work done has already been adapted and made available for other pupils.     

Reading Together: Capitalising on inter-disciplinary work in the development and refinement of reading tests

The present article provides further evidence of the growing involvement of educational psychologists in inter-disciplinary work. Drawing on the experience of an ongoing national reading test development project, the article describes how educational psychologists and linguists have successfully managed to combine professional knowledge and expertise to create and refine a group reading test. It reports on the innovative approach to reading test development that has emerged from this inter-disciplinary work. That is, how electronically stored language corpora (bodies of electronically stored text) and the employment of corpus analysis software can help to secure the content validity of reading tests. The article concludes by emphasising the growing accessibility of new software tools and suggests that there is increasing scope for inter-disciplinary involvement in the area of reading. It also comments on the potential of this approach in the understanding and assessment of dyslexia.     

Bouncing back from failure: The interactive impact of perceived controllability and stability on self-efficacy beliefs and future task performance

Abstract

There is limited empirical evidence of the relationship between attributions following failure and subsequent task performance. Two studies manipulated the perceived controllability and stability of causes of initial task failure and explored the impact of these factors on perceptions of self-efficacy and follow-up performance. Consistent with previous attributional and social identity theorizing, an induced belief that failure was both beyond control and unlikely to change led to lower self-efficacy and worse performance, relative to conditions in which outcomes were believed to be controllable and/or unstable. These findings point to the resilience of beliefs in personal self-efficacy, but suggest that where opportunities for self-enhancement are precluded, personal self-belief will be compromised and performance will suffer.