Transfer paths and academic performance: The primary school merger program in china

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, China's Ministry of Education embarked on an ambitious program of primary school mergers by shutting down small village schools and opening up larger centralized schools in towns and county seats. The goal of the program was to improve the teacher and building resources in an attempt to raise the human capital of students in poor rural areas, although it was recognized that students would lose the opportunity to learn in the settings of their own familiar villages. Because of the increased distances to the new centralized schools, the merger program also entailed building boarding facilities and encouraging or mandating that students live at school during the week away from their family. Given the magnitude of the program and the obvious mix of benefits and costs that such a program entails there has been surprisingly little effort to evaluate the impact of creating a new system that transfers students from school to school during their primary school period of education and, in some cases, making student live in boarding facilities at school. In this paper, our overall goal is to examine the impact of the Rural Primary School Merger Program on academic performance of students using a dataset from a survey that we designed to reflect transfer paths and boarding statuses of students. We use OLS and Propensity Score Matching approaches and demonstrate that there is a large “resource effect” (that is, an effect that appears to be associated with the better facilities and higher quality of teachers in the town and county schools) that appears to be associated with the transfers of students from less centralized schools (such as village schools) to more centralized schools. Boarding, however, is shown to have negative impacts on academic performance. However, students who transfer to county school benefit from the transfer no matter where they start and whether they board or not.     

The contributions of ‘hot’ and ‘cool’ executive function to children's academic achievement, learning-related behaviors, and engagement in kindergarten

Executive functioning (EF) refers to higher order thought processes considered foundational for problem-solving. EF has both ‘cool’ cognitive and ‘hot’ emotional components. This study asks: (a) what are the relative contributions of ‘hot’ and ‘cool’ EF to children's academic achievement? (b) What are the relative contributions of ‘hot’ and ‘cool’ EF to learning-related classroom behaviors and observed engagement? (c) Do learning-related classroom behaviors and observed engagement account for the relation between EF and achievement? For a sample of 173 kindergarteners, cool EF predicted math achievement, learning-related classroom behaviors, and observed engagement. Hot EF did not predict any achievement or behavior outcomes when examined concurrently with cool EF. Children's classroom behavior did not account for the relation between cool EF and math achievement, suggesting cool EF and math performance are directly associated.     

素质教育层面下的学校体育教育思考

采取文献资料、社会调研、分析比较等方法，以国内外学校体育教育的现状分析为背景，从素质教育的角度，阐述了目访我国学校体育教育中存在的问题．明确提出：学校体育教育是全面实施素质教育的重要途径之一，应包括身体、心理、文化和思想等诸多方面，具有多元性。现代学校体育教育要以健康教育为目标，突出个性化，培养创新意识，同时要努力开发学校体育的连带功能。只有这样，学校体育教育的功能才能在实施素质教育过程得列充分发展。     

论宋初“三先生”对理学的开启作用

胡瑗、孙复和石介,学界史称宋初＂三先生＂,他们是北宋初期的著名思想家。＂三先生＂以儒家知识分子的担当意识,为捍卫儒家道统,对宋初泛滥的佛、道思想进行了批判,提倡儒学的真精神,展示了复兴儒学的决心和勇气,从而开启了以后影响中国封建社会长达700年之久的＂程朱＂理学。     

影响惠州市区学生课外体育活动的主要原因与解决对策

本文通过对惠州市市区学生课外体育活动现状的调查研究，旨在较全面了解市区学生参与课外体育活动的情况，从中发现存在问题。为推进学生课外体育活动发展，提高其效果、提供有参考价值的依据．     

论师资结构对高校体育教育可持续发展的影响

文章运用文献资料法、调查法和数理统计法,通过对甘肃高校公共体育课开设状况及特点、教师比例、学历、职称、年龄结构、教学能力和科研能力等现状的调查与分析.提出了通过增加教师数量,稳定教师队伍,提高教师素质等促进学校体育工作发展的措施.     

高职生症状自评量表评定结果分析

目的:通过对高职学生心理卫生状况调查,了解高职学生的心理健康状况发展规律。方法:采用症状自评量表(SCL-90),进行比较分析。结果:高职学生各因子分明显高于全国正常成人常模;在总体水平上,高职学生总体的心理健康水平也明显低于全国大学生平均水平;男生的心理健康状况略好于女生;往届生的心理健康水平低于新生的心理健康水平。结论:应加强高职学生心理健康教育工作。     

河南高等教育支撑中原经济区建设探究

河南高等教育支撑中原经济区建设既是河南高等教育发展的使命,也是其发展的内在需求,也是提升中原文化的需要。在河南高等教育促进中原经济区建设的过程中,政府的宏观战略布局、调节控制及引导激励起到了至关重要的作用。河南高校一方面应积极主动地服务于中原经济区建设,寻求建立在人才培养和就业基础上的合作,寻求建立在建立在产学研基础上的合作;另一方面要在合作的过程中紧抓机遇,以提高人才培养质量为前提,合理定位,提高自主创新能力。     

Impact of cross-cultural training on black and white mental health professionals

In a 3-year period, 174 mental health professionals received intensive 8-day cross-cultural/interracial communication workshops involving didactic, transactional, experiential, and cultural immersion techniques. Comprehensive evaluation strategies investigated changes in social distance, attitudes, and values comprehension, as well as improvement in therapeutic performance. Comparison of 68 white and 54 black clinical practitioners indicated significant differences in impact, with the former more oriented toward cognitive and attitudinal change, and the latter toward insight into personal identity and role conflict. Among white trainees, increased values comprehension, increased agreement with preferential treatment for minorities, and decreased social distance to tri-ethnic (black, Hispanic, white) stimulus figures at three socioeconomic status (SES) levels, were associated with improved therapeutic skills with a poor black client. Among black trainees, self-distancing responses to social, attitudinal, and values items which implied both acknowledgment and rejection of “black professional” identity, were associated with highly significant improvement in therapeutic performance with a poor black client. In addition to demonstrated efficacy in building knowledge and skill, cross-cultural training appears to be a consciousness-raising process for minority professionals conflicted about culture-abandonment and irrelevancies in clinical training.