Managing Headship Transitions in U.S. Independent Schools

Headship transitions in U.S. independent schools represent critical organizational events that affect multiple school constituencies, including faculty, staff, and students. With recent projections forecasting a high level of impending headship transitions in independent schools, this paper seeks to capture how second-year U.S. independent school heads (n = 16) describe their transition experiences in order to provide insights into how boards, heads, and school communities can provide meaningful supports for their incoming school leaders. Further recommendations for practice and research are also provided.     

光影麦当娜

四分之一个世纪以来,全世界人眼中的麦当娜是红成超越了时代、流行乐坛历史上不容忽视的"音乐女皇",而当她的光芒落入摄影师眼中,会得到怎样的诠释?拍摄过麦当娜的摄影师多如过江之鲫,这次2013年4月18日到21日上海外滩3号举行的"麦当娜影像全球巡展"上展出的则是颇具代表性的经典之作。不迎合观众的接受度,用最直接的方式表现狂放与性感,她很明确自己想要什么,并毫不犹豫地将反对的人从生命中"淘汰出局",这样的真性情让她成为整个世界的宠儿。透过摄影师的镜头,让麦当娜台上台下的风采以一种更加艺术化的视角呈现。每一个观展者都可以通过摄影师的光影捕捉领略到麦当娜的摄人气场。2012年11月以来,"麦当娜影像全球巡展"先后登陆曼谷、新加坡、巴黎和纽约等时尚之都,虏获了众多观展者的心。此次在上海,也被观展的名流们誉为"让人惊艳的艺术与流行文化盛宴"。来自纽约的著名街头艺术家Alec Monopoly的现场涂鸦创作让摄影、街头涂鸦艺术与流行音乐三种形式完美融合。     

Relationships Among Multiple–Choice and Open–Ended Analytical Questions

Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to explore relationships among existing item types and three new computer–administered item types for the analytical scale of the Graduate Record Examination General Test. One new item type was an open–ended version of the current multiple–choice analytical reasoning item type. The other new item types had no counterparts on the existing test. The computer tests were administered at four sites to a sample of students who had previously taken the GRE General Test. Scores from the regular GRE and the special computer administration were matched for a sample of 349 students. Factor analyses suggested that the new item types with no counterparts in the existing GRE were reliably assessing unique constructs but the open–ended analytical reasoning items were not measuring anything beyond what is measured by the current multiple–choice version of these items.     

Improving Measurement for Graduate Admissions

In this study we examined alternative item types and section configurations for improving the discriminant and convergent validity of the GRE General Test. A computer-based test of reasoning items and a generating-explanations measure was administered to a sample of 388 examinees who previously had taken the General Test. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that three dimensions of reasoning—verbal, analytical, and quantitative—and a fourth dimension of verbal fluency based on the generating-explanations task could be distinguished. Notably, generating explanations was as distinct from new variations of reasoning items as it was from verbal and quantitative reasoning. In the full sample, this differentiation was evident in relation to such external criteria as undergraduate grade point average (UGPA), self-reported accomplishments, and a measure of ideational fluency, with generating explanations relating uniquely to aesthetic and linguistic accomplishments and to ideational fluency. For the subset of participants with undergraduate majors in the humanities and social sciences, generating explanations added to the relationship with UGPA over that contributed by the General Test.     

K-12th grade students as active contributors to research investigations

TheEarth Day: Forest Watch Program at the University of New Hampshire utilizes morphological and anatomical measurements made on branch and needle samples from eastern white pine (Pinus strobus), collected by K-12 students throughout New Hampshire and Maine. White pine is considered to be a bio-indicator species for ozone exposure. A University research project which monitors the response of white pine to elevated levels of tropospheric ozone has been developed by the authors, who incorporate student-made measurements such as needle length, occurrence of diagnostic foliar symptoms, needle retention, and cellular levels of damage, into an on-going project which characterizes conifer response to a variety of air pollutants. The research team compares classroom measurements with laboratory spectral reflectance measurements made on student-collected branch samples, and infers state-of-health conditions in white pine from the two-state area. These state-of-health data are, in turn, compared with State-monitored tropospheric ozone measurements on a yearly basis, resulting in change-over-time analysis of both regional ozone levels and relative levels of tree health. Based on the work to data (1991–1996), student-derived data have been found to correlate well with spectral parameters and with spatial patterns of summer ozone levels, suggesting that student measurements represent an accurate and reliable source of data for research scientists. Specific examples of student datasets and comparisons with reflectance data and how these can be used for Landsat data verification are presented, along with a discussion of the importance of being able to assess the accuracy of student data. Research scientists need to recognize the tremendous potential for access to reliable data represented by student data-collection programs such asEarth Day:Forest Watch.     

Home environment and school performance: a ten-year follow-up and examination of three models of environmental action

The home environments of 42 10- and 11-year-old children were examined when they were infants and again during middle childhood. Significant correlations were observed between home environments measured at both 2 years and 10 years and the children's SRA achievement test scores and their classroom behavior. However, the home environment at 6 months was only related to a limited number of classroom behaviors. Partial correlations were used to test 3 models of environmental action: Model I (primacy of early experience), Model II (predominance of the contemporary environment), Model III (cumulative effects in stable environments). Strongest relations were noted for the contemporary environment, but all 3 models received some support. Correlations between HOME scores and children's competence in middle childhood revealed a complex portrait that was not explainable with reference to a single model of environmental action. The version of the HOME Inventory used with families of elementary school children is also introduced.