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2. Single-Sex Classes in Two Arkansas Elementary Schools: 2008-2009
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive, Stotsky, Sandra, Denny, George, and Tschepikow, Nick
- Abstract
Interest in single-sex classes continues to grow in the United States, but there has been little research at the elementary level in this country or elsewhere to help guide educators' decision-making about the overall value of single-sex classes in public schools and the specific value of single-sex classes in public schools for increasing boy's reading achievement. The major purpose of our study was to find out if single-sex classes in two public elementary schools in Arkansas, one in grade 5 and the other in grade 6, seemed to make a difference in boys' reading achievement in the 2008-2009 year, as judged by scores on annual state assessments. That is, did boys in an all-boys' class do better than, the same as, or worse than comparable boys in a mixed class? We were interested in whether boys' literacy scores significantly improved in a single-sex class because of the large and growing gap in reading (and writing) achievement between boys and girls by the high school years. The single-sex classes in the two elementary schools for which we had state assessment data showed differing results. In one school, boys in the boys' class gained significantly more in Literacy than boys in the mixed class. In the other school, boys in the boys' class did not gain significantly more or less than boys in the mixed class in Literacy, but they did gain significantly less than the boys in the mixed class on the Reading test from a nationally normed test that the school also gives. As we also found, girls did not gain significantly more in Mathematics in a girls' class than in a mixed class in either school, but they did not gain significantly less. However, the trends in gain scores for boys and girls in Literacy and in Mathematics tended to favor the single-sex classes. There does not seem to be an academic downside in experimenting with single-sex classes so far as is suggested by test results in these two elementary schools. Boys' and Girls' Scores in Mathematics are appended. (Contains 18 tables and 4 footnotes.)
- Published
- 2010
3. Does Competition among Schools Encourage Grade Inflation?
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive and Walsh, Patrick
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This paper considers whether high schools in competitive environments use grade inflation to attract and retain families, perhaps in addition to more constructive responses. Two measures of grade inflation are used: the cutoffs used by each school to assign a letter grade to a percent score; and high school GPA after controlling for test scores, a rich set of student and school characteristics, and (for a subset) college GPA. Two measures of competition are used: the enrollment-based concentration of school districts in metropolitan areas, and an instrument for this concentration. In both OLS and IV, increased competition significantly affects grade cutoffs: a one standard deviation increase in competition results in about a 0.12 to 0.18 standard deviation fall in the grade cutoffs (ceteris paribus, lower cutoffs yield higher grades). However, in both OLS and IV, competition does not significantly affect the actual assigned grades as measured by GPA. This pattern of results suggests that school administrators under competitive pressure may ease grade standards, but that teachers may re-adjust their scoring to leave actual grades relatively unchanged. (Contains 7 tables, 1 figure and 4 footnotes.)
- Published
- 2010
4. Why Teacher Leaders Don't Want to Be Principals: Evidence from Arkansas
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive, Hewitt, Paul M., Pijanowski, John C., and Denny, George S.
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This study investigates why teachers, identified by their school principal as being leaders or having leadership potential, chose not to become school principals. At a time in which the literature is reporting a shortage of qualified applicants for school administrative positions the identified reasons most cited by teacher leaders include testing/accountability pressures too great, job generally too stressful, too much time required, and societal problems make it difficult to focus on instruction. The key factors for teacher leaders choosing not to pursue a career in school administration are categorized as stress and time demands are too great. (Contains 5 tables.)
- Published
- 2009
5. Licensure Tests for Special Education Teachers: How Well They Assess Knowledge of Reading Instruction and Mathematics
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive and Stotsky, Sandra
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The 1998 reauthorization of the Higher Education Act requires all states to report annually to the U.S. Department of Education the number of prospective teachers at each teacher training institution who pass their own state tests for licensure. However, the law left decisions on what tests to require in each field, what to assess on them, and their passing scores up to each state. To determine the content knowledge in reading and mathematics that subject tests for prospective special education teachers assess, this study drew on information available on the Web sites for Educational Testing Service, the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence, and National Evaluation Systems. It examined the extent to which these tests address three research-based components of reading pedagogy (instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, and vocabulary knowledge), the weights attached to knowledge of these three components, and the quality of the sample questions provided for them. It estimated the percentage of test items addressing mathematics content and these three components on each test. It also analyzed the descriptions of ETS's tests of "principles of teaching and learning" to see whether these tests assess understanding and use of educational theories that underlie effective research-based practices. The findings of this study suggest that one solution for ensuring that prospective special education teachers begin their teaching careers with a substantial amount of research-based knowledge of reading instruction is to require them to take a dedicated test of research-based reading instructional knowledge, as do California, Massachusetts, and Virginia, in addition to any other tests required for their license. To ensure an adequate amount of relevant mathematical knowledge, states might consider replicating the 40-item test of mathematics content that Massachusetts will require of all aspiring elementary and special education teachers in 2009. States will also need to design their own tests of basic principles of teaching to ensure that they assess knowledge of educational theories that underlie effective research-based practices. Profiles of Thirteen Tests for Elementary and Sometimes Other Teachers are appended. (Contains 1 figure, 2 tables and 5 footnotes.)
- Published
- 2008
6. Addressing Gaps in Research on First-Year Success: Gauging the Influence of High School Environment, Part-Time Instructors, and Diversity on Preparation and Persistence of First-Year University Students
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive and Herzog, Serge
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Effects of the high school environment, part-time university instructors, and classroom ethnic/racial diversity on first-year student preparation and enrollment persistence are estimated via hierarchical linear and logistic regression. After controlling for student socio-demographic characteristics and motivation to enter college, high school attributes bear little relevance to level of academic preparation at the start of the first year of study. In contrast, academic performance of low-income students at the end of the first year is negatively associated with several features of the high school environment. There is little evidence that student persistence is negatively affected by exposure to part-time instructors during the first year in college. Ethnic/racial diversity in the classroom appears to slightly enhance persistence of non-Asian minority students, but shows no positive relationship with cognitive growth. Unmet financial need marginally increases the dropout risk of students taking greater course loads net of socio-demographic background, academic preparation, first-year grades, on-campus residency, and type of aid received. Results are based on institutional matriculation records of 2,800 first-year students at a moderately selective public university and official high school accountability reports collected by the state's department of education. (Contains 8 tables and 6 footnotes.)
- Published
- 2008
7. Using School Scholarships to Estimate the Effect of Private Education on the Academic Achievement of Low Income Students in Chile
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive, Anand, Priyanka, Mizala, Alejandra, and Repetto, Andrea
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This paper estimates the impact of private education on the academic achievement of low-income students in Chile. To deal with selection bias, we use propensity score matching to compare the test scores of reduced-fee paying, low-income students in private voucher schools to those of similar students in public schools and free private voucher schools. Our results reveal that students in fee-charging private voucher schools score slightly higher than students in public schools. The difference in standardized test scores is approximately 10 points, a test score gain of 0.2 standard deviations. We find no difference in the academic achievement of students in the private voucher-fee charging treatment group relative to their counterparts in free private voucher schools. Variables used in the analysis are appended. (Contains 13 tables and 31 footnotes.) [Funding for this research was provided by Fondecyt, the Fulbright Commission, and PBCT-CONICYT Project CIE-05.]
- Published
- 2008
8. The Fiscal Impact of the MPCP in Milwaukee and Wisconsin: 1993-2008
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive and Costrell, Robert M.
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Throughout the history of publicly-funded voucher programs--enacted and proposed--the impact on taxpayers has been a recurring issue. As the nation's longest-running program, the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) provides an important case study. The fiscal impact of Milwaukee's program has evolved in very significant ways over its 18-year history, both in size (as the program grew) and in its allocation among different groups of taxpayers--Milwaukee property taxpayers, non-Milwaukee property taxpayers, and Wisconsin state taxpayers. This report closely examines the features of the MPCP funding formula, and its interaction with the state's regular district funding formula over the program's history to better understand the impact on taxpayers. Appendices include: (1) Review of selected previous literature; (2) Further Details in Funding Formulas; and (3) Equations Underlying Tables and Figures. (Contains 66 footnotes, 8 tables, and 9 figures.)
- Published
- 2008
9. The Impact of School Finance Litigation on Resource Distribution: A Comparison of Court-Mandated Equity and Adequacy Reforms
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive, Springer, Matthew G., Liu, Keke, and Guthrie, James W.
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While there is a wealth of research on school finance equity and adequacy, and school finance theory clearly documents differences between the two concepts, no study has examined whether the reforms engendered by each approach actually differ in terms of resource distribution. This study examines the issues using district level data on expenditure by function from two, large national datasets: U.S Census of Governments School System Finance File (F-33, 1972-2002) and the National Center for Education Statistics' Longitudinal School District Fiscal-Nonfiscal File (FNF, 1990-2000). A difference-in-differences estimator with state and year fixed effects indicates that both court-mandated equity and adequacy reforms decrease resource inequities. However, estimates based on data from the F-33 file show negligible differences between equity and adequacy reforms, while estimates based on data from the FNF file indicate adequacy reform does not decrease horizontal inequities as much as court-mandated equity reform. To examine these contradictory findings, we implement a two-stage regression approach to examine if court-mandated adequacy reform is associated with a state funding mechanism accounting for certain educational needs of students. Court-mandated adequacy reform does not result in the allocation of additional resources to low income districts when compared to states under court-mandated equity reform. We conclude that, contrary to school finance theory, resource distribution patterns following court-mandated equity and adequacy reforms are not statistically different. (Contains 14 footnotes and 7 tables.)
- Published
- 2008
10. MPCP Longitudinal Educational Growth Study Baseline Report
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive, Witte, John F., Wolf, Patrick J., Cowen, Joshua M., Fleming, David J., and Lucas-McLean, Juanita
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This report focuses on the initial design, implementation and baseline results of the five-year Longitudinal Educational Growth Study (LEGS) of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) being conducted by the School Choice Demonstration Project (SCDP). The LEGS will be the first evaluation of the participant effects of the MPCP using student-level data to be implemented since the initial pilot program expanded dramatically in 1995. Included this initial report are baseline descriptions of achievement tests for a representative sample of MPCP students in grades 3 through 9, as well as outcomes for comparable samples of students in Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). Also included are a descriptive analysis of survey results of MPCP parents and a carefully matched sample of MPS parents as well as a brief description of the results of student surveys for both samples. The first section of the baseline report discusses the construction of a sample of 2,727 MPCP students in grades 3-9. The report also discusses the selection of 2,727 similar Milwaukee Public School students. For both samples the core of this longitudinal study will be to track the educational progress across the two samples through school year 2011-12. We demonstrate that the sample of MPS students constructed by the SCDP is more similar to the representative MPCP sample along demographic and initial achievement criteria than other potential comparison groups of MPS students. The baseline results indicate that MPCP students in grades 3 to 5 are currently scoring slightly lower on the math and reading portions of the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examinations (WKCE) than their MPS counterparts. However, no such difference exists for students in grades 6 to 8. Benchmark Test results for 9th graders are also similar between the two groups. The differences in grades 3 to 5 are almost exclusively due to lower MPCP math scores that disappear in grades 6 to 8. According to our surveys of parents and students, MPCP parents had lower incomes, but higher levels of education than MPS parents. The two groups were also quite similar on how they learned of their child's school and the qualities they sought in schools. A key difference was that MPCP parents got more information from churches and valued religious instruction more than MPS parents. In both groups, over 70 percent of students were attending their parents' first choice of schools. Both MPCP and MPS parents and students showed high levels of satisfaction with their schools--in some cases higher than national averages. However, MPCP parents and students were generally more positive about their schooling experience than their counterparts in MPS. MPCP parents were less likely to report problems at school such as school violence, and had slightly higher educational expectations for their children, than comparable MPS parents. Students were also very positive about their schools, differing only slightly in their evaluation of their school climate depending on whether they were in the MPCP or MPS. Five appendices are included: (1) Description of the Study Mandate; (2) Constructing the Sample for Study; (3) Data Collection Procedures and Protocols; (4) Parental Survey Tables; and (5) Student Survey Tables. (Contains 2 figures, 6 tables and 16 footnotes.)
- Published
- 2008
11. A Phenomenological Study of School Consolidation
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive, Nitta, Keith, Holley, Marc, and Wrobel, Sharon
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This phenomenological study of school consolidation is an investigation of how education policy that dictates the reorganization of schools and districts impacts educational choices, learning environments, and school culture. Although quality studies of optimal school size for promoting student achievement and cutting costs have emerged in the consolidation literature, few rigorous studies exist that investigate the affective costs and benefits of school consolidation policies. We present the findings from twenty-five interviews in four Arkansas school districts with students, teachers, and administrators who moved as a result of district consolidation, as well as those who were already in receiving schools. In addition to evidence verifying and throwing into doubt arguments in the existing literature both supporting and opposing consolidation, we report evidence of three new themes: 1) those moving schools and in receiving schools have different experiences, with those moving much more affected; 2) adults and children are affected differently, with children much more adaptable; and 3) some promising consolidation strategies to mitigate the problems of consolidation have begun to emerge. (Contains 2 tables.)
- Published
- 2008
12. Estimating the Influence of Financial Aid on Student Retention: A Discrete-Choice Propensity Score-Matching Model
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive and Herzog, Serge
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The greatest limitation in establishing causality in observational studies on the effect of financial aid is the presence of endogeneity or selection bias associated with aid status. To control for this statistical confoundedness that besets the research corpus to date, this study estimates the effect of financial aid on freshmen retention at a moderately selective, public university using propensity score-matching in multi-stage regression analyses. The correlational pattern that emerged from twenty-four logit models suggests higher-income students accrue a retention benefit from financial aid, unlike low-income students, net of first-year academic experience and type and amount of aid received. Conversely, retention of low-income freshmen is more likely due to academic performance compared to those from high-income background. Findings on the effect of aid are consistent with the economics of moral hazard and unobservable behavior. (Contains 6 footnotes, 8 tables, and 2 figures.)
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- 2008
13. What Do Cost Functions Tell Us about the Cost of an Adequate Education?
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive, Costrell, Robert M., Hanushek, Eric, and Loeb, Susanna
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Econometric cost functions have begun to appear in education adequacy cases with greater frequency. Cost functions are superficially attractive because they give the impression of objectivity, holding out the promise of scientifically estimating the cost of achieving specified levels of performance from actual data on spending. By contrast, the opinions of education stakeholders form the basis of the most common approach to estimating the cost of adequacy, the professional-judgment method. The problem is that education cost functions do not in fact tell us the cost of achieving any specified level of performance. Instead, they provide estimates of average spending for districts of given characteristics and current performance. It is a huge and unwarranted stretch to go from this interpretation of regression results to the claim that they provide estimates of the minimum cost of achieving current performance levels, and it is even more problematic to extrapolate the cost of achieving at higher levels. In this paper we review the cost function technique and provide evidence that draws into question the usefulness of the cost function approach for estimating the cost of an adequate education. (Contains 28 footnotes and 7 figures.) [Funding for this paper was provided by the Missouri Show-Me Institute.]
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- 2008
14. Diversity and Educational Benefits: Moving Beyond Self-Reported Questionnaire Data
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive and Herzog, Serge
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Effects of ethnic/racial diversity among students and faculty on cognitive growth of undergraduate students are estimated via a series of hierarchical linear and multinomial logistic regression models. Using objective measures of compositional, curricular, and interactional diversity based on actuarial course enrollment records of over 6,000 students at a public research university, the study finds no patterns of positive correlation with objective measures of cumulative academic achievement (i.e., final graduating GPA, GRE/GMAT test scores, graduate school enrollment) net of academic preparation at college entry and socio-demographic background, and with or without accounting for academic major, college curricular experience, and financial aid. Results are consistent with student self-assessed level of critical thinking skills after graduation, but not with self-assessed level of understanding of racial and cultural issues, both affective outcomes showing a positive correlation with curricular diversity. As the findings contradict most of the higher education literature on survey-based cognitive benefits of ethnic/racial diversity, the study calls for use of objective measures to advance the research in this area. (Contains 19 tables, 4 graphs and 10 footnotes.)
- Published
- 2007
15. The Effect of Black Peers on Black Test Scores
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive, Armor, David J., and Duck, Stephanie
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Recent studies have used increasingly complex methodologies to estimate the effect of peer characteristics--race, poverty, and ability--on student achievement. A paper by Hanushek, Kain, and Rivkin using Texas state testing data has received particularly wide attention because it found a large negative effect of school percent black on black math achievement. This paper replicates the HKR models using state testing data from North and South Carolina and national testing data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study. The replications fail to support the Texas results. In most models tested, black peer effects are small and not statistically significant, and in the few instances where effects are significant, they are much weaker than those found in Texas. Moreover, it appears that computational problems in the HKR study led to incorrect estimates for black peer effects. An appendix is included. (Contains 8 tables, 5 figures and 15 footnotes.)
- Published
- 2007
16. Teacher Licensure Tests: Their Relationship to Mathematics Teachers' Academic Competence and Student Achievement in Mathematics
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive and Stotsky, Sandra
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Many educators choose to believe that learning to read and write is as natural as learning to listen and speak, even though scientifically based research does not support their belief. However, most educators (as well as the public) believe that most students must be taught mathematics to learn it. Moreover, there is a body of research evidence that attests to the positive relationship between students' mathematics achievement and their teachers' mathematics knowledge. Teachers who know more mathematics than their peers have students who learn more mathematics than their peers. Thus, state and federal officials, as well as the general public, are rightly concerned about the academic qualifications of those who teach mathematics (and science) in the public schools, especially since there has been a steady decline for decades in the number of mathematics and science majors or minors choosing secondary school teaching careers. There has also been a steady decline in the number of high-achieving women seeking to become elementary teachers or teachers of other subjects. About two decades ago, in an effort to ensure that their teachers had an adequate grasp of the field of their license before they began teaching, states began to require the passing of a subject matter licensure test for entry into the profession. Licensure tests--typically tests assessing the basic substantive knowledge needed for professional practice--are the major objective measure of quality control used by most professions for entry into the profession. By default, licensure tests have determined what new teachers in elementary, middle, and high school need to know in mathematics in order to teach the subject. They have also influenced how new teachers taught mathematics if they or other required tests contained pedagogical items. However, people lack a critical summary of the research on the content, value, and uses of teacher licensure tests. A small but growing number of studies have examined the content or value of teacher licensure tests and their relationship to student achievement. The purpose of this paper is to indicate what can be learned from these studies, especially those that examine the content or use of teacher tests assessing mathematics knowledge, and to highlight a number of questions that warrant research if these tests are to serve the same function that licensure tests serve other professions. Three appendices are included: (1) Topics for the Elementary, Middle, and High School Mathematics Licensure Tests in Massachusetts; (2) Pass Scores by Test Administration from May 2005-May 2006 on Three Mathematics Tests for Teacher Licensure in Massachusetts; and (3) License-Specific Evaluation Questions for Prospective Mathematics Teachers in Massachusetts. (Contains 1 footnote.)
- Published
- 2007
17. School Governance and Information: Does Choice Lead to Better-Informed Parents?
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive, Kisida, Brian, and Wolf, Patrick J.
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Political theorists have long argued that the average citizen's lack of information and lack of clear policy preferences provide the rationale for public policy to be guided by experts and elites. Others counter that it is precisely the practice of deference to elites that perpetuates and even exacerbates the problem of apathetic and uninformed citizens. According to them, requiring citizens to take responsibility for political decisions and procedures motivates them to obtain the information and training necessary to become effective citizens. Here we look at school choice programs as an environment poised to provide insight into this debate. Theories of school choice suggest that parents need to and can make informed decisions that will tend to situate their students in appropriate schools. School choice, in a sense, brings elements of participatory democracy into the world of compulsory education, and thus brings the same potential benefits and problems that have long challenged democratic theorists. Increasing choices to parents may give them an incentive to raise their information levels about the schools their children attend. Akin to the information gathering of consumers in a marketplace, choice parents should have more reasons to gather more information about their schools than parents without options. Alternatively, a lack of any increase in information levels amongst school choosers would suggest that despite the increased incentives to gather information, having choices per se is not sufficient to overcome the costs of information gathering. To test whether the availability of school choice increases parent information about schools, we analyze data from the second year experimental evaluation of the Washington Scholarship Fund, a privately-funded partial-tuition voucher program. We find that presenting parents with choices does lead to higher levels of accurate school-based information on measures of important school characteristics. Specifically, parents in the school choice treatment group provided responses that more closely matched the school-reported data about school size and class size than did parents of control group members. Robustness Check Using Covariates in Ordered Logit is appended. (Contains 4 tables and 6 footnotes.)
- Published
- 2007
18. You Can't Choose if You Don't Know: The Failure to Properly Inform Parents about NCLB School Choice
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive, Greene, Jay P., Butcher, Jonathan, Jensen, Laura Israel, and Shock, Catherine
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To measure the extent to which schools are properly informing parents about NCLB school choice we sent emails to choice-eligible schools requesting information. The emails were made ambiguous in their origin and purpose so that schools could believe that they came from parents. What we found was widespread lack of cooperation. The vast majority of schools failed to reply at all. Those that did reply were mostly concerned with who we were and why we were asking. Only a tiny minority of schools provided us with the information requested. It is clear that schools are failing to properly inform parents about NCLB school choice. It is also obvious that little is being done to monitor or enforce compliance with these provisions of NCLB. (Contains 2 tables and 24 endnotes.)
- Published
- 2007
19. Choosing Schools, Building Communities? The Effect of Schools of Choice on Parental Involvement
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive and Buckley, Jack
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Proponents of school choice argue that schools of choice build stronger parent communities. Using data from the National Household Education Surveys Program, a nationally-representitive cross-section of U.S. households, I examine the empirical evidence for this claim. To account for the difficulties in identifying causal effects in cross-sectional observational data, I estimate a model that includes the parent's unobserved propensity to both participate in school activities and to choose a public or private school other than their geographically assigned public school. (Contains 3 tables and 5 footnotes.)
- Published
- 2007
20. Do Students Care about School Quality? Determinants of Dropout Behavior in Developing Countries
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive, Hanushek, Eric A., Lavy, Victor, and Hitomi, Kohtaro
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School quality and grade completion by students are shown to be directly linked, leading to very different perspectives on educational policy in developing countries. Unique panel data on primary school age children in Egypt permit estimation of behavioral models of school leaving. Students perceive differences in school quality, measured as expected achievement improvements in a given school, and act on it. Specifically, holding constant the student's own ability and achievement, a student is much less likely to remain in school if attending a low quality school rather than a high quality school. This individually rationale behavior suggests that common arguments about a trade-off between quality and access to schools may misstate the real issue and lead to public investment in too little quality. Further, because of this behavioral linkage, there is an achievement bias such that common estimates of rates of return to years of school will be overstated. The paper demonstrates the analytical importance of employing output-based measures of school quality. (Contains 29 footnotes.)
- Published
- 2007
21. School Quality and the Black-White Achievement Gap
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive, Hanushek, Eric A., and Rivkin, Steven G.
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Substantial uncertainty exists about the impact of school quality on the black-white achievement gap. Our results, based on both Texas Schools Project (TSP) administrative data and the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey (ECLS), differ noticeably from other recent analyses of the black-white achievement gap by providing strong evidence that schools have a substantial effect on the differential. The majority of the expansion of the achievement gap with age occurs between rather than within schools, and specific school and peer factors exert a significant effect on the growth in the achievement gap. Unequal distributions of inexperienced teachers and of racial concentrations in schools can explain all of the increased achievement gap between grades 3 and 8. Moreover, non-random sample attrition for school changers and much higher rates of special education classification and grade retention for blacks appears to lead to a significant understatement of the increase in the achievement gap with age within the ECLS and other data sets. (Contains 20 tables, 2 figures and 42 footnotes.) An appendix is included which develops the decomposition presented in equation (1). [Support for this work has been provided by the Packard Humanities Institute.]
- Published
- 2007
22. Comparing Graduation Rates Using One State's Data
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive, Franklin, Bobby J., and Crain-Dorough, Mindy
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The National Governors' Association is urging states to develop a standardized cohort graduation rate definition and to develop data systems with quality data that can in turn be used to produce a reliable indicator. This paper is an examination of one state's graduation rate using the cohort method. The statistics generated are compared to a panel based graduation rate, the Average Freshmen Graduation Rate (AFGR) produced by the National Center for Education Statistics and the Cumulative Promotion Index (CPI) published in Education Week. The cohort, panel and AFGR methods generated similar results across all years while the CPI produced a lower rate for two of four years examined. The CPI appears to be more susceptible to population fluctuations than those that use four years of data. (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.)
- Published
- 2006
23. Getting Farther Ahead by Staying Behind: A Second-Year Evaluation of Florida's Policy to End Social Promotion
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive, Greene, Jay P., and Winters, Marcus A.
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Social promotion has long been the normal practice in American schools. Critics of this practice, whereby students are promoted to the next grade regardless of academic preparation, have suggested that students would benefit academically if they were made to repeat a grade. Supporters of social promotion claim that retaining students (i.e, holding them back) disrupts them socially, producing greater academic harm than promotion would. A number of states and school districts, including Florida, Texas, Chicago, and New York City, have attempted to curtail social promotion, by requiring students to demonstrate academic preparation on a standardized test before they can be promoted to the next grade. This study analyzes the effects of Florida's test-based promotion policy on student achievement two years after initial retention. It builds upon our previous evaluation of the policy in two ways. First, we examine whether the initial benefits of retention observed in the previous study continue, expand, or contract in the second year after students are retained. Second, we determine whether discrepancies between our evaluation and the evaluation of a test-based promotion policy in Chicago are caused by differences in how researchers examined the issue, or by differences in the nature of the programs. Our analysis shows that, after two years of the policy, retained Florida students made significant reading gains relative to the control group of socially promoted students. These academic benefits grew substantially from the first to the second year after retention. That is, students lacking in basic skills who are socially promoted appear to fall further and further behind over time, whereas retained students appear to be able to catch up on the skills they are lacking. Further, we find these positive results in Florida, both when we use the same research design that we used in our previous study, and when we use a design similar to that employed by the evaluation of the program in Chicago. The differences between the Chicago and Florida evaluations appear to be caused by differences in the details of the programs, and not by differences in how the programs were evaluated. (Contains 5 tables and 10 footnotes.)
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- 2006
24. The Alchemy of 'Costing Out' an Adequate Education
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive and Hanushek, Eric A.
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In response to the rapid rise in court cases related to the adequacy of school funding, a variety of alternative methods have been developed to provide an analytical base about the necessary expenditure on schools. These approaches have been titled to give an aura of a thoughtful and solid scientific basis: the professional judgment model, the state-of-the-art approach, the successful schools method, and the cost function approach. Unfortunately, none can provide a reliable and unbiased answer to the question "how much do adequate schools cost?" Each is highly manipulable, generally satisfying the interested party commissioning the work to be done but not meeting the fundamental tenets of scientific inquiry. This paper reviews and critiques the methodology as applied in a substantial number of states. (Contains 43 endnotes.)
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- 2006
25. Bottom-Up Structure: Collective Bargaining, Transfer Rights, and the Plight of Disadvantaged Schools
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive and Moe, Terry M.
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In the positive theory of public bureaucracy, the prevailing view is that the structure of public agencies is designed from the top down by political superiors. Faced with bureaucrats who may disagree with them on policy and who are advantaged by private information, superiors choose rules and procedures to try to ensure that agencies do what they are supposed to do. At least some portion of bureaucratic structure, however, cannot be explained in this way. It emerges from the bottom up through collective bargaining, it is driven by the organizational power of ordinary bureaucrats rather than by their information power, and it results in work rules intended to promote their occupational interests rather than to have any specific effects on implementation or policy--although the unintended consequences for the latter may be significant. When this happens, the theory overlooks an aspect of structure that is essential for understanding the way government operates. This paper begins to explore the connections between collective bargaining, bottom-up structure, and bureaucratic behavior. The empirical focus is on the public schools, the bureaucrats are public school teachers, and the analysis shows that a very common type of contract rule--which gives senior teachers transfer rights over jobs--affects the way teachers distribute themselves across schools, and leads to a situation in which disadvantaged schools (those with high percentages of minorities) find it especially difficult to attract quality teachers. What the analysis shows, more generally, is that even very simple types of bottom-up structure can have significant effects on bureaucrats and their agencies--and the current theory needs to recognize as much. (Contains 5 tables and 23 footnotes.)
- Published
- 2006
26. The Fiscal Impact of the D.C. Voucher Program
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive, Aud, Susan L., and Michos, Leon
- Abstract
In August 2004 the first ever federally funded school voucher program began in Washington, D.C. Eligible students could attend a private school of their choice in the District of Columbia. Each participant received up to $7,500 for school tuition, fees, and transportation. In addition, the D.C. Public School System (DCPS) and D.C. charter school system each received $13 million in federal grants to improve their programs. This study examines the fiscal impact of the voucher program on DCPS and the District of Columbia. The program is currently funded by the federal government and creates a net inflow of funds to both the District and DCPS. This study also examines the fiscal impact of the program under several proposed changes to the law. Those scenarios include funding the program locally, making it universally available to all D.C. public school students, and expanding capacity by including regional private schools. Our findings include the following: (1) The current program saves the city nearly $8 million, mostly because it is federally funded and includes a federal grant to public schools; (2) If federal grant subsidies were withdrawn and the program were locally funded, the city would still save $258,402 due to the greater efficiency of school choice; (3) A locally funded universal program would maximize the economic benefits of school choice, saving $3 million; and (4) The process by which both DCPS and its schools are funded is not conducive to efficiency or excellence. The voucher program currently allows the central administration to retain an even higher share of overall funding than it did previously, leaving the management of reduced expenditures predominately at the school level. A universal school choice program could help to put a larger share of resources into the hands of schools. (Contains 27 notes and 7 tables.)
- Published
- 2006
27. Massachusetts' 'Hancock' Case and the Adequacy Doctrine
- Author
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive and Costrell, Robert
- Abstract
The Hancock school finance case put the adequacy doctrine to its strictest test yet, to see if even a national educational leader such as Massachusetts could be found in constitutional violation. The doctrine failed this test, as the court found in favor of the defendants due to the vigorous reform program since 1993. The court credited the state's steady educational progress, closing of funding gaps between rich and poor districts, and its strong program of accountability and standards. None of this is relevant under the adequacy doctrine, which posits a constitutional funding requirement tied to specified educational outcomes. The lessons of Hancock are that courts need not accept the adequacy doctrine as the constitutional standard, but the best strategy to head off judicial intervention is to adopt Massachusetts-type reforms. (Contains 10 figures and 66 footnotes.)
- Published
- 2006
28. Who Chooses, Who Uses? Initial Evidence from the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program
- Author
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive, Wolf, Patrick, Eissa, Nada, and Gutmann, Babette
- Abstract
The federal government recently enacted its first school voucher program as a pilot project in the District of Columbia. To be eligible, students need to be entering grades K-12 and have a family income at or below 185 percent of the poverty level. Although a rigorous analysis of the Opportunity Scholarship Program's impact on student achievement and other outcomes remains a prospect for the future, at this early point initial data exists regarding the families that are applying for the program and the students that are using and not using the voucher when offered. Here we present a preliminary analysis of those data. We find that program applicants are somewhat disadvantaged relative to non-applicants regarding educational characteristics and family income, and are more likely to be African American, than non-applicants. The fact that the program is means-tested appears to be central to the finding that it is reaching a more disadvantaged population of students. When we examine all students that received a voucher award, and compare the group of voucher users with the group of voucher decliners, we find two significant differences. First, scholarship users are educationally advantaged in important ways relative to scholarship decliners. They are much less likely to have learning or physical disabilities, and younger scholarship users evidence somewhat higher test scores than non-users in similar grades. Second, we find that scholarship non-users are more likely to report that their existing school has various specialized educational programs and more extensive facilities. Although these results suggest some measure of selectivity in the group of actual program participants, the data do not indicate conclusively if that selectivity is a function of the decisions and behavior of participating private schools or the result of the rational decisions of consumers in a newly-expanded education market. (Contains 10 tables and 29 footnotes.)
- Published
- 2006
29. Teams versus Bureaucracies: Personnel Policy, Wage-Setting, and Teacher Quality in Traditional Public, Charter, and Private Schools
- Author
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive and Podgursky, Michael
- Abstract
This paper examines reasons why personnel policy and wage setting differ between traditional public, private, and charter schools and the effects of these policies on academic measures of teacher quality. Survey and administrative data suggest that the regulatory freedom, small size of wage-setting units, and a competitive market environment make pay and personnel practices more market and performance-based in private and charter schools as compared to traditional public schools. These practices, in turn, permit charter and private schools to recruit teachers with better academic credentials as compared to traditional public schools. The primary sources of data in this paper is the 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), a representative national survey of schools, districts, principals and teachers conducted regularly by the National Center for Education Statistics of the U.S. Department of Education. An appendix is included. (Contains 2 figures, 9 tables and 8 footnotes.)
- Published
- 2006
30. Weighted Student Formula: Putting Funds Where They Count in Education Reform
- Author
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive, Cooper, Bruce S., DeRoche, Timothy R., Ouchi, William G., Segal, Lydia G., and Brown, Carolyn
- Abstract
Ever since the publication of "A Nation At Risk" in 1983, Americans have been preoccupied with two problems regarding public education: (1) student performance is unsatisfactory to most Americans despite large increases in real spending per student; and despite several attempts at reforming curricula, teacher training, testing, and other elements of education; and (2) the nation's schools see a large and persistent gap in scores on standardized tests between white and Asian students on the one hand and black and Hispanics on the other. Reform, however, has been hindered by a deep philosophical divide within the school reform community. On the one hand, the radical "market" reformers believe that public school districts are public monopolies unresponsive to the needs of their "customers" and incapable of change. Members of this group support vouchers, charters, tax credits, etc. On the other hand, the more moderate, "internal" reformers believe that public school districts simply need more support and better management. These advocates generally tend to favor decentralization, public school choice, lower class sizes, increased spending per pupil, etc. Recently, a reform program has emerged that may well lead to some consensus between many members of "both" groups. This reform is Weighted Student Formula (WSF), a system of per-pupil budgeting that is now used in three large North American districts: Edmonton, Seattle, and Houston. In a WSF system, dollars are allocated to each student, and these funds follow the student to the local school. Children with greater needs--be they poor or disabled or non-English speaking--receive a higher allocation, giving schools the ability to provide extra services to these needy students, knowing that the weighted funds will "follow" the student to the school and classroom. Local educators are then given much discretion to determine how best to meet the educational needs of their student population. The purpose of this paper is to: (1) Compare and contrast the WSF systems used in Edmonton, Seattle, and Houston; (2) Highlight how WSF is different from the resource allocation systems used in most urban districts, especially New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles; and (3) Make recommendations about how a district can implement WSF successfully, based on the lessons from Edmonton, Seattle, and Houston. (Contains 10 tables and 4 figures.)
- Published
- 2006
31. School Achievement of Pupils from the Lower Strata in Public, Private Government-Dependent and Private Government-Independent Schools: A Cross-National Test of the Coleman-Hoffer Thesis
- Author
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive, Corten, Rense, and Dronkers, Jaap
- Abstract
We consider the question whether pupils from the lower social strata perform better in private government-dependent schools than in public or private-independent schools, using the PISA 2000 data on European high schools. In the eighty's, Coleman and Hoffer (1987) found in the USA that the performance of these pupils was better at religious schools than at comparable public schools. Dronkers and Robert (2003) found in PISA-data for 19 comparable countries that private government-dependent schools are more effective then comparable public schools, also after controlled for characteristics of pupils and parents and the social composition of the school. The main explanation appeared to be a better school climate in private government-dependent schools. Private independent schools were less effective than comparable public schools, but only after controlling for the social composition of the school. As a follow-up we now investigate, again with the PISA-data of these 19 countries, whether this positive effect of private government-dependent schools differs between pupils from different strata. We use various indicators to measure social strata: social, cultural and economic. We expect that the thesis of Coleman & Hoffer does hold for private government-dependent schools, because in these 19 countries they are mostly religious schools, which have more opportunities to form functional communities and create social capital. But for private independent schools, which due to their commercial foundation are less often functional communities, this relation is not expected to hold. However, the results show that public and private schools have mostly the same effects for the same kind of pupils and thus mostly not favor one kind of pupils above another kind of pupils. But private government-dependent schools are slightly more effective for pupils with less cultural capital. However, private independent schools are also more effective for pupils from large families or low status families. (Contains 4 tables, 12 notes and a list of 25 Literature Resources .)
- Published
- 2006
32. Leaving Boys Behind: Public High School Graduation Rates
- Author
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive, Greene, Jay P., and Winters, Marcus A.
- Abstract
This study uses a widely respected method to calculate public high school graduation rates for the nation, for each state, and for the 100 largest school districts in the United States. The authors calculate graduation rates overall, by race, and by gender, using the most recent available data (the class of 2003). While this report builds upon a foundation of previous reports, there is much that is new. First, this report contains graduation rate estimates for the class of 2003, the most recent year for which data are available. Second, in this report the authors are able for the first time to break out graduation rates by gender. Observers have long suspected that the graduation rate for boys is significantly lower than that for girls. Third, this report contains graduation rates for each of the 100 largest school districts in the country. (Contains 5 tables and 14 endnotes.)
- Published
- 2006
33. What School Leadership Texts Teach: An Analysis of Leading Volumes Used in Principal Preparation
- Author
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive, Hess, Frederick M., and Kelly, Andrew P.
- Abstract
Little scholarly attention has been paid to what aspiring principal are actually reading in the preparation courses or whether the texts prepare them for the demands of accountable management. We examine eleven of the thirteen most commonly assigned educational administration texts in a sample of 210 principal preparation syllabi. In the texts studied, of thirteen terms tracked, "performance" and/or "achievement" were the most commonly used, appearing 44.3 times per 100 pages of text. Meanwhile, the terms "efficiency," "accountability," and "termination/dismissal" were mentioned less than six times per 100 pages. The texts generally encourage the use of data but are more skeptical when it comes to using results to make tough management decisions. Three possible approaches to enhancing the content of preparation are proposed: authors broadening discussion in existing texts, publishers issuing new texts, or faculty taking steps to diversify their assigned readings. (Contains 8 tables and 5 footnotes.)
- Published
- 2006
34. Is Teacher Pay 'Adequate?'
- Author
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive and Podgursky, Michael
- Abstract
In school finance lawsuits plaintiffs often claim that pay levels are not sufficient to recruit teachers who can deliver constitutionally-mandated levels of educational services. In this paper I consider several ways in which one might bring economic theory and data to bear on that question. I conclude that at present, and at least for the near term, education research cannot prescribe an "adequate" level of school spending on teachers, whether in the form of pay, benefits, or professional training, that can reliability predict a target level of student performance. If courts are predisposed to intervene in this matter, a more reasonable standard for "adequacy" is whether available revenues, when spent in an efficient manner, are sufficient to staff classrooms with appropriately-certified teachers in a flexible licensing regime that satisfies both state and federal teacher quality standards. (Contains 6 figures, 7 tables and 15 endnotes.)
- Published
- 2006
35. Apples to Apples: An Evaluation of Charter Schools Serving General Student Populations
- Author
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University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive, Greene, Jay P., Forster, Greg, and Winters, Marcus A.
- Abstract
Charter schools--public schools that are exempt from many of the procedural regulations that apply to regular public schools--are a widespread but poorly-studied form of education reform. With nearly 2,700 charter schools now educating more than 684,000 children nationwide, policymakers and parents need to know how the education charter schools provide compares to that provided by regular public schools. Assessing the academic performance of charter schools is difficult, because many charter schools are targeted toward specific populations such as at-risk students, disabled students, and juvenile delinquents. This makes it very challenging for researchers to draw a fair comparison--comparing targeted charter schools to regular public schools is like comparing apples and zebras. As a result, there are very few reliable research findings on the academic quality of charter schools as compared to regular public schools. This is the first national empirical study of charter schools that compares apples to apples--that is, test scores at charter schools and regular public schools serving similar student populations. By comparing "untargeted" charter schools serving the general population to their closest neighboring regular public schools, we can draw a fair comparison and get an accurate picture of how well charter schools are performing. Measuring test score improvements in eleven states over a one-year period, this study finds that charter schools serving the general student population outperformed nearby regular public schools on math tests by 0.08 standard deviations, equivalent to a benefit of 3 percentile points for a student starting at the 50th percentile. These charter schools also outperformed nearby regular public schools on reading tests by 0.04 standard deviations, equal to a benefit of 2 percentile points for a student starting at the 50th percentile. The study's strongest results came in Florida and Texas. In Texas, charter schools achieved year-to-year math score improvements 0.18 standard deviations higher than those of comparable regular public schools, and reading score improvements 0.19 standard deviations higher. These benefits are equivalent to 7 and 8 percentile points, respectively, from the 50th percentile. Florida charter schools achieved year-to-year math and reading score improvements that were each 0.15 standard deviations greater than those of nearby regular public schools, equivalent to a gain of 6 percentile points for a student starting at the 50th percentile. (Contains 2 tables and 6 endnotes.)
- Published
- 2006
36. The Life and Times of Emma Goldman: A Curriculum for Middle and High School Students.
- Author
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California Univ., Berkeley. Emma Goldman Papers Project., Falk, Candace, Reese, Lyn, and Dougherty, Mary Agnes
- Abstract
Emma Goldman (1869-1940) is a major figure in the history of radicalism and feminism in the United States. In a period when the expression of controversial ideas was dangerous, Goldman insisted on her right to challenge convention. She was among the most prominent advocates of labor's right to organize, reproductive rights, sexual freedom, freedom of speech, and freedom of the individual. Goldman left an intriguing body of personal papers, including correspondence and writings; and her activities generated extensive newspaper coverage, government surveillance reports, and legal papers. The documents in this teaching unit are drawn from a massive archive collected by the Emma Goldman Papers Project at the University of California (Berkeley). They are organized into five themes or topics: (1) "Immigration"; (2) "Freedom of Expression"; (3) "Women's Rights"; (4) "Anti-militarism"; and (5) "Art and Literature of Social Change." The topics can be taught in any sequence. Each of the five themes includes suggested activities that students may use to explore the broader significance of the documents and their context. A brief introduction to Emma Goldman and a timeline are provided for students. A glossary of terms appearing in the documents is included along with a selected resources section of annotations on books, media, and literature. (BT)
- Published
- 2001
37. The Life and Times of Emma Goldman: A Curriculum for Middle and High School Students. Primary Historical Documents on: Immigration, Freedom of Expression, Women's Rights, Anti-Militarism, Art and Literature of Social Change.
- Author
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California Univ., Berkeley. Emma Goldman Papers Project., New Directions Curriculum Developers, Berkeley, CA., Los Angeles Educational Partnership, CA., and Falk, Candace
- Abstract
The documents in this curriculum unit are drawn from the massive archive collected by the Emma Goldman Papers Project at the University of California (Berkeley). They are linked to the standard social studies and humanities curriculum themes of art and literature, First Amendment rights, labor, progressive politics, and Red Scare, the rise of industrialization, immigration, women's rights, World War I, and yellow journalism. The unit uses the body of Goldman's personal papers, including correspondence and writings, as well as newspaper stories, government surveillance reports, and legal documents. As the records illustrate, Emma Goldman, a major figure in the history of American radicalism and feminism during a period when the expression of controversial ideas was itself dangerous, was among America's most prominent advocates of labor's right to organize, reproductive rights, sexual freedom, freedom of speech, and freedom of the individual. This curriculum is divided into five major topics all taught through the use of primary documents. Topics are: (1) Immigration; (2) Freedom of Expression; (3) Women's Rights; (4) Anti-Militarism; and (5) Arts and Literature of Social Change. A biographical essay on Emma Goldman is included, as well as an annotated list of six recommended films and videos and a 60-item annotated bibliography. (LBG)
- Published
- 1992
38. An ESL Motivations Assessment for a Community-Based ESL Programme.
- Author
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Paper, Li Chuang
- Abstract
A survey assessed the motivations of Chinese adults learning (N=512), living in Canada, English as a Second Language. Results revealed such motives as linguistic needs, basic skills, cultural awareness, social interaction, and resume-writing but found no differences in perceived motivation according to age, education level, or length of stay in Canada. (Author/CB)
- Published
- 1990
39. Engaging Ecosystems
- Author
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Duncan, Susan, Papers, Jerry, and Franzen, Woody
- Abstract
Vertical connections, constructed using inquiry, give students the skills to reach new heights in both their academic and local communities. In this article, the authors present inquiry projects, developed by middle level teachers, to ensure that students use higher-level thinking skills to improve the community. Each project is connected to the previous year's to give students a deeper understanding of how research can help citizens build a sustainable community. Teachers work together to plan field studies and guide students in presenting their findings to others in the community using models, PowerPoint presentations, a web accessible database, and reports from field investigations. The projects are as follows: (1) healthy marine ecosystems--sixth grade; (2) interdisciplinary science: biodiversity and development--seventh grade; and (3) collaborating to create a better biosphere--eighth grade. (Contains 1 figure and 4 online resources.)
- Published
- 2006
40. The Writing System of Modern Persian. American Council of Learned Societies Program in Oriental Languages, Publication Series B - Aids - Number 4.
- Author
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Spoken Language Services, Inc., Ithaca, NY., American Council of Learned Societies, New York, NY., Paper, Herbert H., and Jazayery, Mohammad Ali
- Abstract
This manual describes and illustrates the writing system of modern Persian. It is modelled after Frank A. Rice's "Classical Arabic: The Writing System." Five sections concerning the writing system are provided: (1) printed Persian, (2) typewritten Persian, (3) handwritten Persian, (4) the combination of words, and (5) punctuation. (RL)
- Published
- 1955
41. Summaries of 1991-92 EDCORE Grant Winners.
- Author
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International Paper Company Foundation, New York, NY.
- Abstract
This document includes a pamphlet and report pertaining to International Paper Company's EDCORE (Education and Community Resources) grant program. The pamphlet describes the program which awards grants in communities where International Paper Company's employees live and work. It highlights three EDCORE grants in Louisiana, Wisconsin, and Maine. The accompanying report contains information on 1991-92 EDCORE grant winners. One hundred forty-seven grants totalling $549,167 were awarded in school districts in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin. Grant descriptions are organized alphabetically by state, and within state by the International Paper Company Facility which is in partnership with local school districts. Grants fall into the categories of John Hinman Teacher Fellowships, School Projects, and Open Opportunity Grants. Each grant description contains the title, the teacher or coordinator, the school, the amount awarded, and a brief summary of the project. Grant topics include: (1) whole language instruction; (2) enhanced science programs; (3) geography instruction; (4) cooperative learning; (5) student publishing; (6) higher level thinking skills; (7) community involvement; (8) enhanced mathematics instruction; (9) reading programs; (10) environmental education; (11) outdoor education; (12) writing instruction; (13) educational technology; and (14) programs for at-risk students. (KS)
- Published
- 1992
42. How To Write with Style. Power of the Printed Word.
- Author
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International Paper Co., New York, NY. and Vonnegut, Kurt
- Abstract
Elements of a writer's style reveal to readers what sort of a person it is with whom they are spending time. These revelations are important because they are a mark of respect for readers. To develop style, follow these guidelines. Find a subject to care about and which others should care about. It is this caring which will be the most seductive and compelling element of style. Do not ramble. Keep it simple. Remember that two great masters of the language, William Shakespeare and James Joyce, wrote sentences which were almost childlike when their subjects were most profound. Have the guts to cut. If a sentence does not illuminate the subject in a new way, scratch it out. Sound natural. The most natural style for writers is to echo the speech they heard as a child. Say what is meant. If there is something worth saying and understanding, then it must be able to be understood. Pity the readers. They have to make immediate sense of thousands of little marks on paper, an art so difficult that most people don't really master it. For really detailed advice on literary style in a technical sense, see "The Elements of Style," by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White. (DC)
- Published
- 1980
43. How To Write a Resume. Power of the Printed Word.
- Author
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International Paper Co., New York, NY. and Simon, Jerrold G.
- Abstract
When conducting a job search, first decide what job area to go after, then find out more about it. Next write a resume. Name, address, and telephone number should go at the top. If the job objective is known exactly, list that next. Now comes work experience; begin with the most recent and work backwards. Don't just list what was done, tell how well it was done. Next, list education. Include high school only if there is no college. If there are no diplomas or degrees, tell about special training programs, courses, or activities. List military service. Now comes personal data, a chance to further the image that has been projected in the preceding sections. Keep the writing style simple and brief. Start sentences with action verbs. Make sure that grammar and spelling are correct and that there are no "typos." Have the resume professionally duplicated. When the resume is ready, track down job openings. Send the resume, along with a cover letter, to a specific person in the company. Arrive early for the interview and follow up with a thank-you note. Keep a list of contacts made and their results. (DC)
- Published
- 1981
44. How To Write Clearly. Power of the Printed Word.
- Author
-
International Paper Co., New York, NY. and Thompson, Edward T.
- Abstract
To write well, it is only necessary to write simply and clearly. To learn how, one must want to write clearly, be willing to work hard, and follow some basic guidelines. Before writing, create an outline by arranging ideas on note cards and putting them in a logical sequence. Write to the reader's level of knowledge about the subject. Avoid jargon. Use familiar combinations of words, but retain correct grammar. Use "first-degree" words--words that immediately bring an image to mind. Stick to the points contained in the outline. Be as brief as possible. Here are some ways to condense writing: (1) present points in logical order; (2) don't tell people what they already know; (3) cut out excess evidence and unnecessary anecdotes; (4) avoid word wasters and windy phrases; (5) look for passive verbs that can be made active; (6) look for positive/negative sections from which the negative can be cut; and (7) when finished, stop. (DC)
- Published
- 1979
45. How To Improve Your Vocabulary. Power of the Printed Word.
- Author
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International Paper Co., New York, NY. and Randall, Tony
- Abstract
The following pointers can help people learn and remember new words. First, try to guess the meaning of the word from the way it's used. At least part of a word's meaning can be determined from the context of the sentence. To find out exactly what the word means and where it comes from, look it up in a dictionary. To get at the meaning behind the word, it is necessary to determine its roots. Learning roots: (1) helps with remembering words, (2) gives a deeper understanding of them, and (3) allows the learning of whole families of new words at a time. Another important clue to the meaning of a word is the prefix. There aren't many prefixes and they are easy to learn. Once new words have been learned, they should be put to work immediately. But be careful not to sound like a stuffed shirt; use them when they sound natural. (DC)
- Published
- 1979
46. How To Use a Library. Power of the Printed Word.
- Author
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International Paper Co., New York, NY. and Michener, James A.
- Abstract
To make the most of a library, read and read and read. Here's a sure remedy for the television habit: pile a stack of library books on the television set and next time, instead of turning on a program, reach for a book. Some people limit themselves to reading current bestsellers, but the library is full of yesterday's bestsellers which are still compelling today. Learn to use the card catalog; this is where any book can be found. Learn to use the stacks; unknown books will turn up that are exactly what is needed. Learn to know the reference librarian. Learn to use "The Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature." It is a guide to the latest information on any subject of interest. Four personal hints are: (1) take full notes when using magazines; (2) ask about the availability of reprographic machines; (3) keep a small notebook of identification numbers of frequently used books; and (4) learn how to use the reference books. The library can give help on any subject. Here are a few ideas for fun and rewarding library projects: trace family roots, find out what famous person slept nearby, cook a Polynesian feast, or take up photography. (DC)
- Published
- 1980
47. How To Write a Business Letter. Power of the Printed Word.
- Author
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International Paper Co., New York, NY. and Forbes, Malcolm
- Abstract
Business letters should turn people on rather than turning them off. To write a good business letter, know what the goal is before starting to write, call the reader by name, tell what the letter is about in the first paragraph, refer to dates when answering letters, and write from the reader's point of view. Be positive, be nice, and be natural. Don't be cute or flippant, but don't be afraid to display a sense of humor. Be specific. Lean heavier on nouns and verbs and lighter on adjectives, and use the active voice instead of the passive voice. Make the letter visually appealing. Keep it short, use underlining and indentation for emphasis, and make it perfect. Make the meaning crystal clear, use good English, don't put on airs, don't exaggerate, distinguish opinions from fact, and be honest. Edit ruthlessly. Use the last paragraph to tell the reader what is anticipated as a followup. Close with something simple and sign legibly. (DC)
- Published
- 1981
48. How To Enjoy the Classics. Power of the Printed Word.
- Author
-
International Paper Co., New York, NY. and Allen, Steve
- Abstract
A classic is a book that gives the exhilarating feeling that a part of life finally has been uncovered. It is a book that has stood the test of time, that people keep reaching for throughout the ages for its special enlightenment. Here are some suggestions to help open up the world of the classics: (1) know if what is being read is a novel, a drama, a biography, or a history; (2) don't read in bed (classics can be tough going); (3) don't be thrown by a lot of characters; (4) give the author a chance and don't give up on the book too soon; (5) read in big bites; (6) read what the author read; (7) read about the author's time; (8) read about the author's life; and (9) read the book again. The following are a few classics worth trying: Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey"; Rabelais's"Gargantua and Pantagruel"; Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales"; Cervantes's "Don Quixote"; Shakespeare's plays, especially "Hamlet,""Macbeth," and "Romeo and Juliet"; Charles Dickens's "Pickwick Papers"; and Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn." (DC)
- Published
- 1980
49. How To Enjoy Poetry. Power of the Printed Word.
- Author
-
International Paper Co., New York, NY. and Dickey, James
- Abstract
Poetry comes to a person from outside, but for it to live, the person must come to it and meet it and complete it. Poetry is new every day because it is seen in different ways by different people. It makes possible the deepest kind of personal possession of the world. The first true encounter with poetry should be simple and should involve allowing oneself to think and to feel. Part of the spell of poetry is the rhythm of the language. Almost anything put into rhythm and rhyme is more memorable than the same thing said in prose. Writing poetry is a lot like a contest with oneself. Some of the best fun is making up limericks. When the rhymes "pay off," they give a sense of completion and inevitability that is so deliciously memorable that there is nothing else like it. The deeper the encounter wth poetry, the deeper will be the experience of life. Connections between things will exist in ways that they never did before. (DC)
- Published
- 1982
50. How To Read Faster. Power of the Printed Word.
- Author
-
International Paper Co., New York, NY. and Cosby, Bill
- Abstract
Three practical ways to get the meaning from printed words quickly and efficiently are: (1) previewing; (2) skimming; and (3) clustering. Previewing and skimming are ways of getting through a lot of reading material without reading every word. Previewing is especially helpful for heavy reading like long articles, business reports, and nonfiction books. When previewing, read the entire first two paragraphs, then read only the first sentence of each successive paragraph, and finally read the entire last two paragraphs. Skimming is good for short, light reading. The reader's eyes should sweep across each line of material, picking up only a few key words in each line. These techniques give a fast, general idea of content. To read faster and understand more, use clustering. Clustering is looking at groups of words instead of one word at a time. This takes constant practice. Pick up something light to read. Concentrate on clustering the first time through, then reread it normally to see what was missed. Practice this 15 minutes every day; it may take a week or more to pick up this technique. (DC)
- Published
- 1981
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