Estimates relationships among graduate economics programs' attributes and recent Ph.Ds' occupational choices and publishing proficiency. Research experience in graduate school is positively associated with subsequent publishing proficiency. Other variables include graduate school ranking, graduate school faculty size and publishing proficiency,…

Two concerns related to setting performance standards on educational assessments are discussed. First, criteria for a standard-setting process from the point of view of a standard-setting sponsor, called here "institutional criteria," are developed using a state department of education as an example. Four institutional criteria are proposed: (a)…

A hierarchical structure is a widespread organizational form in many areas. My aim in this paper is to provide a rationale for this fact based on two premises. First, a group organizes itself so as to achieve efficient coordination. Second, efficient coordination is achieved only if subgroups as well as individuals agree to cooperate. Even in…

Steering higher education through the establishment of a "contract" between the state and the individual higher education institution is becoming an increasingly popular way of regulating the relationship between the two actors in the Nordic countries. This article addresses some theoretical foundations for this approach derived from…

Accountability is an important focus for nearly all-public higher education institutions. In 1997 the Washington State Legislature mandated an accountability measure designed to encourage public universities to increase student efficiency toward graduation. This accountability measure is assessed by a formula called the Graduation Efficiency…

Although Uganda has made tremendous progress in education provision in the past decade, particularly with the introduction of universal primary education, it is confronted by a number of financing challenges relating especially to the demand for increased access at the secondary and tertiary levels. There are two aspects to the funding question:…

The implementation of a new computer science (CS) curriculum in high schools which includes all the basic elements of traditional CS programs, motivated a research to determine how students conceive the very fundamental notion of efficiency. Since this was the first time that algorithm efficiency was integrated into a high school curriculum, our…

The working lives of general staff in universities have been a rather closed book until recently, having been largely ignored in both academic and non-academic literature. When discussed or referred to, general staff have been depicted in problematic ways that, in recent times, can be associated with the prevailing discourse of "corporate…

In the last few years, schools and universities have incorporated personal digital assistants (PDAs) into their teaching curricula in an attempt to enhance students' learning experience and reduce instructors' workload. One of the most common uses of PDAs in the classroom is as a test administrator. This study compared the usability effectiveness,…

This paper provides the results of two studies designed to evaluate a newly constructed self-report instrument, the Sexual Abuse Questionnaire (SAQ). The SAQ was designed as a brief screening device to aid in the identification of a childhood sexual abuse history. A "unique" feature of the SAQ is the inclusion of a number of non-face…

In large residential treatment centers for adolescent youth, program administrators and clinical staff rely on the information imparted to them by direct care staff to make appropriate decisions regarding administrative and clinical support functions so that the residents in care can receive the best treatment possible. This study was designed to…

The National Plan for Higher Education in South Africa (NPHE) (2001) identifies access as one of the priorities for the transformation of higher education. Consequently, several structural adjustments, policy shifts and enabling mechanisms have been put in place to enhance the efficiency of universities that will eventual lead to access for…

To accurately analyze the problems of students in learning, the composed test sheets must meet multiple assessment criteria, such as the ratio of relevant concepts to be evaluated, the average discrimination degree, difficulty degree and estimated testing time. Furthermore, to precisely evaluate the improvement of student's learning performance…

Recent visual marking studies have shown that the carry-over of distractor inhibition can impair the ability of singletons to capture attention if the singleton and distractors share features. The current study extends this finding to first-order motion targets and distractors, clearly separated in time by a visual cue (the letter X). Target…

"Policy and Performance in American Higher Education" presents a new approach to understanding how public policy influences institutional performance, with practical insight for those charged with crafting and implementing higher education policy. Public institutions of higher learning are called upon by state governments to provide…