This study examined the access of books among six communities in the greater Los Angeles area: Brentwood, Beverly Hills, South Central, Watts, East Los Angeles, and Compton, participants included 60 students, ages 7 to 12 years, selected from each community. The survey examined access to books in the home, classroom library, school library and…

This article proposes an item exposure control method, which is the extension of the Sympson and Hetter procedure and can provide item exposure control at both the item and test levels. Item exposure rate and test overlap rate are two indices commonly used to track item exposure in computerized adaptive tests. By considering both indices, item…

This article reconsiders the issue of clinical versus statistical prediction. The term clinical is widely used to denote 1 pole of 2 independent axes: the observer whose data are being aggregated (clinician/expert vs. lay) and the method of aggregating those data (impressionistic vs. statistical). Fifty years of research suggests that when…

The purpose of this Information Aid is to alert school officials to changes and revisions in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), to familiarize them with differences between the former CPI and the new and revised indexes, to demonstrate how the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) computes changes in the CPI, to indicate appropriate uses of the CPI,…

To mark the occasion of its 25th anniversary, the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) brought together policy, industry and academic leaders to reflect on the role that research and statistics have played in the development of Australia's vocational education and training (VET) sector. This publication includes the original…

Although Instant Messaging (IM) has established itself as one of the most popular modes of communication, little empirical research has explored how adolescents are affected by its use to satisfy their virtual interpersonal relationships. This research investigates cause and effect in the satisfaction of these relationships among adolescents in…

Objective: This study attempts to provide fundamental information to help with the development of health policy and health services by looking at the trends of the gender-specific mortality rates in Korea and Japan. Design: The death statistics of Korea and Japan over the 21-year period from 1983 to 2003 are analyzed. Setting: We used the death…

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the latent factor structure of the Coping With Problems Experienced (COPE) inventory, and to compare this structure to an imposed, culturally relevant latent structure with a sample of African Americans. The alternate, latent structure was derived from an Africentric framework, as well as from…

Increasing the participation of minority groups at public colleges and universities is a longstanding goal of the Board of Governors for Higher Education, as first outlined in its 1983 "Strategic Plan to Ensure Racial and Ethnic Diversity in Connecticut Public Higher Education". The minority groups defined by the plan are:…

The Achieving the Dream (ATD) initiative works with more than 100 community colleges across the United States with the specific goal of increasing student success. Together, Achieving the Dream colleges graduate or transfer close to 250,000 students a year. With just a 5 percent increase in graduation rates, individuals can positively impact the…

Anthony Bryk is president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Previously, he held the Spencer Chair in Organizational Studies in the School of Education and the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University as well as the Marshall Field IV Professor of Urban Education and Sociology at the University of Chicago. Dr.…

This article reports findings from a case study of district leadership for school, family and community partnerships in a suburban district in the mid-Atlantic region of the USA. Analyses suggest that the case district's family and community involvement specialist has been successful in using different kinds of data to achieve a variety of goals…

"Projections of Education Statistics to 2018" is the 37th report in a series begun in 1964. It includes statistics on elementary and secondary schools and degree-granting institutions. Included are projections of enrollment, graduates, teachers, and expenditures to the year 2018. This is the first edition of the "Projections of…

Past estimates of the effect of family income on child development have often been plagued by endogeneity and measurement error. In this paper, we use two simulated instrumental variables strategies to estimate the causal effect of income on children's math and reading achievement. Our identification derives from the large, non-linear changes…

Written comments on student evaluations often seem idiosyncratic, lacking the power of numerical statistical data. These statements, however, may sometimes reveal intellectual challenges common to novice learners in our disciplines. Instructors can use these insights as part of a scholarly approach to teaching, making meaningful adjustments to…