Modelling patterns of improvement over time: value added trends in English secondary school performance across ten cohorts

This paper looks at underlying patterns of school effectiveness through analysing a GCSE examination data‐set over a period of ten cohorts (1993–2002) in one very large English school district. Both value added and raw score approaches were explored by employing different statistical multilevel models to examine time trends of school and pupil performance from two perspectives: consistent (linear) and inconsistent (non‐linear) school improvement. Overall, levels of measured attainment for the vast majority of the schools increased over the decade and the results indicate that one in four schools had significantly higher value added improvement trajectories (linear) than would be expected over the decade—in comparison to the average school. Those schools with a lower value added starting point in 1993 were more likely to make significant improvement. However, underlying these linear improvement trajectories it appears that only one in 16 schools managed to improve continuously for more than four years at some point over the decade in terms of value added.     

Dimensions of Secondary School Effectiveness: Comparative Analyses Across Regions

Recent UK government policy implementing new systems of evaluation and accountability have highlighted the use of performance data to inform judgements about secondary schools and stimulate school improvement. However, these developments have been informed by a relatively small number of research studies addressing the methodology of measuring school effectiveness, and often employing limited or incomplete datasets. This paper reports the findings of an Economic Social Research Council (ESRC) funded study that employs 6 extensive and detailed regional datasets (drawn from Lancashire, London, Jersey, Scotland, the Netherlands and England as a whole). The study aims to provide new evidence to assist school staff, policy-makers and academics in understanding the multi-faceted nature of school effectiveness and the need to evaluate school performance in detail. The objectives were to investigate 1) the optimal models for measuring secondary school effectiveness across a range of outcomes in the UK and abroad; 2) the extent of regional differences in the results; 3) the definition of the underlying dimension(s) of school effectiveness across different regional and policy contexts. The findings show that at least 4 dimensions of secondary school effectiveness can be defined, specifically in terms of different outcomes, pupil groups, pupil cohorts and curriculum stages. In addition regional differences appear to exist in the size and impact of school effects, and these are mirrored by differences in regional context in terms of pupil selection. In conclusion it is argued that effectiveness at different levels of the education system (e.g., individual pupils; departments; whole school; region and nationally), as well as interactions between levels, needs to be continually monitored in order to map out the boundaries of school effectiveness and how these change over time. The findings are discussed in relation to developing a value added framework for school evaluation in the UK.     

Practically Perfect in Every Way: Communication Strategies of Ideal Relational Partners

This study utilized social exchange constructs to examine communication strategies used by self-defined ideal relational partners when initiating dating relationships. Two hundred forty-four participants generated 1183 communication strategies they would use to initiate relationships if they believed themselves to be ideal partners. A content analysis revealed 15 categories of communication strategies enacted by ideal relational partners. These categories included initiation, emotional disclosure, direct inquiry, impression management, shared activities, supportive behaviors, information gathering, gift giving, compliments, other-initiated behaviors, assistance from others, self-acceptance, pickup lines, bragging, and use of humor. Implications for interpersonal communication research are discussed.     

Preparing for success: one institution's aspirational and student focused response to the National Student Survey

This paper describes quality enhancement (QE) focused response to the 2006 National Student Survey (NSS) by a post-1992 Higher Education Institution. Recognising the increasing importance of the NSS to a wide range of stakeholders, the University established a task team to explore, from a QE perspective, why the institution received particular scores (both high and low), and to engage in dialogue with students about our response to the results. This article describes just one aspect of this approach: an innovative, student-focused institutional level event, which was forward looking and resulted in tangible actions and outputs for colleagues and students.     

Flights of imagination: Academic women be(com)ing writers

For many academic women, making space in our daily lives to write is an ongoing struggle. We struggle, too, to make imaginative space in which we are central as writing subjects. It is important to find ways to intervene in this struggle, to make writing practices more personally pleasurable as well as more productive. Here two such interventions are described - a week-long writing retreat for women from several universities in New Zealand and an ongoing writing group in one university in Australia. While the interventions partly focus on practical matters like getting started on writing, increasing productivity and satisfaction, and getting published, we are particularly interested in exploring how women do and do not understand ourselves to be academic writers and the implications of this for our practices. In the first part of the paper, we explore the writing dilemmas that face many academic women. Then we go on to describe the interventions we are involved in and the positive outcomes reported by participants. We close with a brief discussion of the academic developer's role in enhancing the experience of writing for academic women.     

The rhetoric of androgyny as revealed in the feminine mystique

Despite the feminist controversy regarding whether gender differences exist in discourse style, it appears that one of the most prominent leaders of the conservative wing of the feminist movement, Betty Friedan, strategically employed an androgynous rhetorical style in her crucial feminist document. The Feminine Mystique. Through an analysis of that text, this essay argues that by employing the “rhetoric of androgyny,” Friedan creates a mainstream feminist audience whose ideology ultimately transcends oppressive gender dichotomizations.