Developing local oral reading fluency cut scores for predicting high‐stakes test performance

This study evaluated the classification accuracy of a second grade oral reading fluency curriculum‐based measure (R‐CBM) in predicting third grade state test performance. It also compared the long‐term classification accuracy of local and publisher‐recommended R‐CBM cut scores. Participants were 266 students who were divided into a calibration sample (n = 170) and two cross‐validation samples (n = 46; n = 50), respectively. Using calibration sample data, local fall, winter, and spring R‐CBM cut scores for predicting students’ state test performance were developed using three methods: discriminant analysis (DA), logistic regression (LR), and receiver operating characteristic curve analysis (ROC). The classification accuracy of local and publisher‐recommended cut scores was evaluated across subsamples. Only DA and ROC produced cut scores that maintained adequate sensitivity (≥.70) across cohorts; however, LR and publisher‐recommended scores had higher levels of specificity and overall correct classification. Implications for developing local cut scores are discussed.     

Longitudinal effects of RtI implementation on reading achievement outcomes

Because several studies have investigated student outcomes in schools implementing Response to Intervention (RtI), relatively little research has investigated the impact of implementation on students’ long‐term achievement outcomes (i.e., several years after exposure). The purpose of this study was to describe one elementary school's RtI implementation process and to examine students’ long‐term reading comprehension outcomes following their exposure to various phases of implementation. Four cohorts of students who experienced different implementation phases (i.e., a baseline condition or Phases I, II, or III of implementation) during Grade 2 were subsequently followed across Grades 3, 4, and 5 to examine their outcomes on two reading comprehension measures. Results indicated that students who experienced the early phases of RtI implementation (i.e., Phases I and II) during Grade 2 generally had higher mean comprehension scores in Grades 4 and 5 than students in the baseline condition. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.     

Rationing and the long-term-care system

Rationing is a concept newly introduced in health-systems analysis in the United States. Although rationing, when applied to health care, is a fearful word to the elderly, at the most basic level it is simply a method that enables government to intervene in the private marketplace to allocate resources to achieve particular policy ends. This intervention to affect allocation of health care resources has long been used by all levels of government in the United States. Intervention by government in the private marketplace is examined as a means of expanding or limiting the supply of health care services or expanding or limiting the demand for such services. The Oregon rationing experiment with Medicaid services has significantly contributed to the introduction of the concept of rationing of health care. As expected, there is a disproportionate interest by the elderly in rationing health care; thus the effect of the Oregon rationing experiment on the elderly is discussed, as are other allocation interventions on long-term care, as a service of particular interest to the elderly.     

Implications of Prelecture Material on Cognitive Load and Instructional Effectiveness in Cross‐Disciplinary IS Education: The Nexus of Benford's Law and SQL

For some time, there has been a call for cross‐disciplinary teaching within the business disciplines. With the rise of data and analytics, there is an opportunity for cross‐disciplinary teaching by integrating technology throughout the business curriculum. However, many business professors have little experience in cross‐disciplinary teaching. We hope to rectify this by introducing an approach that uses prelecture material to prepare students for learning concepts and terms that are not core to the focal class. In a study that combines Structured Query Language (SQL) coding with an audit principle called Benford's Law, we analyze the impact of adding prelecture material about Benford's Law on student's cognitive load, knowledge gained, and instructional efficiency. Results indicate that students who received a prelecture on Benford's Law outperformed the control group in performance measures related to Benford's Law, and that the instructional efficiency on Benford's Law was also higher for the treatment group. We did not find any significant differences in cognitive load between the two groups, nor did the treatment group perform significantly better when tested on the SQL concepts. We conclude that cross‐discipline teaching is a fine balance between each discipline and communicating to students the importance of both disciplines is key.     

Proofs in expository writing — Some examples from Bourbaki's early drafts

Conclusion The stories told above exemplify the ordinary as much as they document the extraordinary. In the practice of expository writing, definitions play as important a role as mathematical proofs. Also, specifying notation and vocabulary is usually at stake in the writing of textbooks. Although the making of concepts and conceptual settings puts an emphasis on definitions, proofs are in no way absent from this process: in the case of Bourbaki's treatment of Stokes' Theorem, proofs may have acted as a spark in the search for better settings. In the case of filters, the discovery of new concepts simplified some proofs and enabled the results to hold in a more general context. But the motivation for new concepts to be defined did not rise exclusively from a dissatisfaction with proofs that were deemed not rigorous enough. Moreover, the close interplay between the members' own research and the group's expository task tended to relegate proofs to a heuristic in the background of the group's preoccupations.     

Mapping the typology of transition systems in a liberal market economy: the case of Canada

This research explores links between tertiary education institutions and between tertiary education and the labour market as determinants of provincial and national transition patterns in Canada. The study consists of a provincial analysis that maps the typology of transition systems across Canada’s devolved federated tertiary education structure. The results show that, nationally: the links between education and work are relatively loose aside from regulated occupations; there is an emphasis on general education; and qualifications are used as a screen for entry to the labour market. However, while Canada can be broadly understood as a liberal market economy, there is provincial diversity within the nation; and there are varying logics for the development of skill, deployment of labour, and relations between institutions. The institutional and policy frameworks, structure of jobs, and formation of skill in Canada’s largest provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec reveal diverse characteristics of transition systems. However, despite internal differentiation in the value of vocational education, variations at the provincial level have not been enough to shift the federal pattern as a whole. Instead, in Canada vocational education is generally stigmatised and viewed as signalling low ability and motivation.     

Smooth Transition for Advancement to Graduate Education (STAGE) for Underrepresented Groups in the Mathematical Sciences Pilot Project: Broadening Participation through Mentoring

The Smooth Transition for Advancement to Graduate Education (STAGE) project was a three-year pilot project designed to mentor undergraduate students primarily from under-represented groups in the mathematical sciences. The STAGE pilot project focused on mentoring students as they transitioned from undergraduate education to either graduate school or a career in the STEM workforce. We discuss the various mentoring structures, the STAGE pilot utilized, and how those structures affected programmatic outcomes. In addition, we discuss challenges we faced in mentoring undergraduates and special considerations we made when mentoring students from under-represented groups.