A longitudinal study of religious identity and participation during adolescence

To examine the development of religious identity during the teenage years, adolescents (N = 477) from Latin American, Asian, and European backgrounds completed questionnaires in the 10th, 11th, and 12th grades (10th grade age: M = 15.81, SD = 0.36). Results indicated that religious identity remained stable across high school whereas religious participation declined. Even after controlling for ethnic differences in religious affiliation, socioeconomic background, and generational status, adolescents from Latin American and Asian backgrounds reported higher levels of religious identity and adolescents from Latin American backgrounds reported higher rates of religious participation. Within individual adolescents, changes in religious identity were associated with changes in ethnic and family identities, suggesting important linkages in the development of these social identities during adolescence.     

A Comparison of Equal Percentile and Partial Credit Equatings for Performance-Based Assessments Composed of Free-Response Items

This study compares the equal percentile (EP) and partial credit (PC) equatings for raw scores derived from performance-based assessments composed of free-response (open-ended) items clustered around long reading selections or multistep mathematics problems. Data are from the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program. The results suggest that Masters (1982; Wright & Masters, 1982) partial credit model may be useful for equating examinations composed of moderately easy (or not too difficult)items sharing a first principal component with at least 25% of the total variance. This conclusion appears to hold even in the presence of some level of response dependency for the items within each cluster. Although visible discrepancies were found between PC and EP equated scores in the skewed tail of the score distributions, the direction of these discrepancies is unpredictable. Therefore, it cannot be concluded from the study that the two methods give equivalent results when the distributions are markedly skewed.     

Between the Structural and the Personal: Situated Sense-Makings of “Race” This research was supported by a grant from the MOSAIC Multicultural Center at San Jose State University.

Using a critical intercultural communication perspective and cultural studies interviewing method, this study traces individuals’ subjective sense-makings of diversity through the trope of “race.” Such sense-makings represent the key (and taken-for-granted) locus of the structural and personal where social actors live out the constructions of diversity and race in deeply felt ways. Our study reveals how individuals articulate and understand race via raceless diversity encodings (whereby race is seemingly stripped of its power inequalities, and all racial/ethnic groups are made equal) and racial pivoting (whereby participants both discursively pull away from and move toward race to suit their individual experiences).     

Relationship between IEP Characteristics and Test Scores on an Alternate Assessment for Students with Significant Cognitive Disabilities

Although many studies have examined the alignment of state standards with large-scale assessment and instruction, fewer have attended to alignment concerning alternate assessments for students with significant disabilities. This study was designed to (1) compare expectations in one state's alternate assessment (AA) with curricular priorities reflected in students' Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), and (2) consider the effect of this relationship on AA scores. The study was conducted in a state whose AA consisted of standardized performance tasks measuring reading comprehension (RC) and number systems (NUM). Archival data, including AA scores and IEPs for 292 students, were analyzed. The average IEP emphasized speaking, writing, and measurement, and objectives primarily required simple recall skills. Half of IEPs contained no objectives aligned with RC. More than one third of IEPs did not align with NUM. Assessment–IEP alignment had a moderate effect on Reading test score, but not Math test score. Recommendations are made for future investigations of the taught curriculum for this population, and professional development to improve alignment of instruction with assessments.     

Educational attainment in the short and long term: was there an advantage to attending faith,private, and selective schools for pupils in the 1980s?

ABSTRACT

This paper asks whether private, selective, and faith schools in England and Wales in the 1980s provided an academic advantage to their pupils, both in the short and longer term. Using longitudinal data from the 1970 British Cohort Study, we examine academic outcomes in compulsory schooling and further education, and the highest qualification gained by age 42. School sector differences are substantially attenuated by controlling for prior pupil characteristics. Nevertheless, a residual effect of private, grammar, and secondary modern schooling remains, both in the short and long term, controlling for both pupil and school characteristics. In the case of faith schools, however, the apparent advantage is restricted to the short term once pupil characteristics are controlled. A unique feature of our analysis is that we control for the individual’s faith of upbringing, which is important in reducing what could otherwise be seen as a distinctive Catholic school advantage.     

Empirical observations on the session timeout threshold

The World Wide Web is a popular “tool” for companies. It can be used as a method of communication between companies and their customers; it also allows organizations to setup virtual storefronts that can be accessed by customers from all over the world. The ability to understand customers’ behavior is extremely important as companies strive to increase the usability and profitability of their web service. The concept of a session is a popular unit of measurement used to analyze recorded information. However, this concept is currently rather abstract and lacks definition. How we measure a session is a fundamental question for web services utilizing this concept. Currently, this question has no real answer. This paper presents a session timeout threshold model based on empirical observations as an initial answer to this question. The model seeks to provide accurate session data with respect to individual web services.     

Lessons from professional identity development literature: A qualitative content analysis

The development of a professional identity as a counselor is the result of training, practice, and integration into a community of professional counselors and is defined as the synthesis of personal and professional behaviors, values, ethics, and worldview. The research on this topic has been plentiful, but this systemic and systematic review of the research literature provides a comprehensive overview of this important concept for counselor training and supervision.     

An empirical investigation of Web session workloads: Can self-similarity be explained by deterministic chaos?

Several studies of Web server workloads have hypothesized that these workloads are self-similar. The explanation commonly advanced for this phenomenon is that the distribution of Web server requests may be heavy-tailed. However, there is another possible explanation: self-similarity can also arise from deterministic, chaotic processes. To our knowledge, this possibility has not previously been investigated, and so existing studies on Web workloads lack an adequate comparison against this alternative. We conduct an empirical study of workloads from two different Web sites: one public university, and one private company, using the largest datasets that have been described in the literature. Our study employs methods from nonlinear time series analysis to search for chaotic behavior in the web logs of these two sites. While we do find that the deterministic components (i.e. the well-known “weekend effect”) are significant components in these time series, we do not find evidence of chaotic behavior. Predictive modeling experiments contrasting heavy-tailed with deterministic models showed that both approaches were equally effective in modeling our datasets.     

A Clarification on the Response Probability Criterion RP67 for Standard Settings Based on Bookmark and Item Mapping

By analyzing the Fisher information allotted to the correct response of a Rasch binary item, Huynh (1994) established the response probability criterion .67 (RP67) for standard settings based on bookmarks and item mapping. The purpose of this note is to help clarify the conceptual and psychometric framework of the RP criterion.     

Outdoor adventure instructors’ perceptions of nature and their work: a phenomenological study

This phenomenological study explored outdoor recreation instructors’ subjective experiences of the natural world. Participants (N = 21) from two outdoor adventure centres participated in semi-structured interviews about their experiences and perceptions of nature. Thematic analysis revealed eight central themes: (1) Childhood Experiences with Nature; (2) Personal Connection with Nature; (3) Solitude and Connection with Others; (4) Nature as Part of Their Lifestyle; (5) Accessibility to Nature; (6) Awareness of Self, Behaviours and Values; (7) Personal Impacts on Others’ Values of Nature, with two sub-themes Rewards of the Job and Goals of the Job; and (8) Had Another Career Idea. Participants recognized the health-related benefits of nature exposure and enjoyed mediating others’ relationships with nature through their work. Outdoor adventure instructors play a crucial role as conduits to facilitating others’ relationships with nature and associated physical and mental health benefits.