The political science honor society, Pi Sigma Alpha, has chapters in nearly 700 institutions across the United States. The organization sponsors many programs that can contribute a great deal to students of political science; however, many students are unaware of these opportunities. This article encourages chapter advisors to make use of these…

Field experiences function as a link between LIS theory and practice. Students should be provided with an experience that is a true reflection of the professional environment. The increasing focus on research by academic librarians provides an opportunity and responsibility to integrate research into the field experiences of LIS students.…

As part of their 10-year $60 million Teenage Pregnancy Prevention Initiative, The California Wellness Foundation funded 18 state and local organizations to conduct policy advocacy to strengthen teen pregnancy prevention policies. This article describes how some of these grantees accomplished noteworthy goals, including the passage of the…

Objective: The authors summarize points for consideration generated in a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) workshop convened to provide an opportunity for reviewers from different disciplines--specifically clinical researchers and statisticians--to discuss how their differing and complementary expertise can be well integrated in the…

Jillian Carr is still an undergraduate, but in the office of institutional research at Rhodes College, she is a full-fledged colleague. A recent analysis she did of student data will probably be used in training for academic advisers this fall. Ms. Carr found that students who overestimate their verbal ability when selecting courses risk a lower…

Purpose: This prologue introduces the clinical forum, briefly discusses the importance of morphology in literacy, and informs the reader of the scope of the included articles. Method: The concept of morphology is reviewed, contributing authors are introduced, and a brief summary of each of the 5 forum articles is provided. Conclusion: The studies…

The importance of the interconnectedness of academic, student, and technical support processes intrinsic to the provision of on-line instruction has been frequently depicted as a "service Web," with students at the center of the infrastructure. However, as programming to support distance learning continues to develop, such service Webs have grown…

As more nonprofit organizations rely on older adult volunteers to provide services, it is important to retain volunteers for an extended period of time to ensure service quality and the beneficial outcomes of volunteering. Nonprofit organizations are positioned to facilitate older adult volunteers' role performance. Based on an institutional…

Teaching outside one's expertise can be intimidating, but educators can still create an environment where students learn new things. This article provides ways to help educators teach well what they don't know. One way is to consider the principle of backward design. Educators can begin with the end product first: What do they want their students…

The Hungarian student loan system was introduced in 2001. It has four main attributes: universal access and universal conditions; income contingent repayment; private funding; and self-sustaining (zero-profit) operation without direct state subsidy. This latter characteristic makes the scheme quite unique in international practice. Empirical facts…

This paper outlines the potential of the portfolio as a product of doctoral work, especially in the Professional Doctorates. It compares the traditional mode of a single, lengthy but clearly focused doctoral dissertation with the portfolio as a collection of shorter research reports, held together by a linking paper articulating the thesis. We…

The study reported here, one part of a larger study on doctoral education, describes a pilot study that used Activity Theory to shape a methodological tool for better understanding the tensions inherent in the doctoral experience. As doctoral students may function within a range of activity systems, we designed data collection protocols based on…

Formative assessment provides a means to successfully scaffold learning. Unfortunately, few teachers understand the pedagogical implications of such scaffolding or their role in utilizing formative assessments. The purpose of our study was to develop an understanding of the experience of being a teacher that is seeking to improve learning through…

Duane Webster oversaw the Association of Research Libraries' (ARL) Statistics and Measurement Program as it evolved into the Statistics and Assessment Program. During his 20-year tenure as ARL's executive director, Duane was instrumental in the creation of ARL's Web-based Interactive Statistics and played a leadership role in the development of a…

This article provides a brief description of a Windows application called IRTEQ. IRTEQ employs an intuitive, user-friendly graphic user interface that can rescale one test form to another by using various item response theory (IRT) scaling methods. It supports various IRT models for test forms. It can also equate test scores on the scale of one…