"How America Saves for College 2015" marks the fifth time Sallie Mae has reported on the theories and practices behind how parents feel about saving for college and what they are doing to save for college. This study reports on the values that parents associate with higher education and their attitudes toward paying for it. In addition,…

This study attempts to examine relative income effects on perceived happiness in three major Asian countries--China, Japan, and Korea--in comparison with the United Sates, on the basis of largely comparable nationwide surveys in these countries. Consistent with the results from previous studies in Western countries, comparisons with an…

This article describes the methodology used in the 2007 U.S. National Roadside Survey to estimate the prevalence of alcohol- and drug-impaired driving and alcohol- and drug-involved driving. This study involved randomly stopping drivers at 300 locations across the 48 continental U.S. states at sites selected through a stratified random sampling…

Of the proposed theoretical explanations for the perpetration of sexual assault, Malamuth's confluence theory remains the most prominent. Further development of this theory has incorporated alcohol use into the original pathways of impersonal sex and hostile masculinity. This study uses data from a nationwide online survey (n = 289) to examine the…

Educators have seen the excitement and focus that students show when using digital devices. In hopes of increasing attendance, reducing dropout rates, and improving learning overall, more and more superintendents are driving their districts toward a 1-to-1 environment in which students take control of their own learning. The question is no longer…

This paper examines leadership in Australia's vocational education and training (VET) sector. VET leaders make a vital and growing contribution to learners, industry and society, yet research on their work is limited. This has direct implications for ensuring leadership is most effective, and for framing evidence-based capacity development. The…

A fifth of US children live in rural areas with limited access to the informal learning opportunities available to their metropolitan counterparts. High-speed broadband internet access can be an important vehicle for delivering opportunities at home and outside of the classroom. In an attempt to explore what current data say about children's…

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) has been used at universities across the U.S. and Canada to gather information about the quality of engagement of first-year students and graduating students. Institutions use NSSE's five benchmarks of effective educational practice to compare themselves with other schools and to focus in on ways to…

The paper analyzes conceptualizations in the science frameworks in three large-scale assessments, Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), and National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The assessments have a shared history, but have developed different conceptualizations. The…

This study examines the trends in the Mincerian rates of return (MRRs) to education in urban China between 1989 and 2009 using two sources of data: the China Urban Household Survey and the China Health and Nutrition Survey, and attempts to explain the underlying causes of the trends. The authors find that while the rates of return to education had…

Data on psychological influences of financial behaviors has not been well addressed in student populations, which is concerning given the high levels of general and financial stress experienced by college students. The findings of this study indicate that college students with an external locus of control exhibit the worst financial behaviors.…

This issue of "Assessment Update" presents the following articles: (1) Student Interpretation of Selected Degree Qualifications Profile Outcomes; (2) Editor's Notes: Ingenuity: A New Super Skill, a New Assessment Challenge, a New National Conversation; (3) Applying Qualitative Techniques to Assessment in Student Affairs; (4) Developing…

Analyses examine change in the age people "feel" ("felt age") and "would like to be" ("ideal age") (relative to current age) in middle and later life. Data are from 1,815 respondents in two waves (1995-96, 2004-06) of the Midlife in the United States Survey (MIDUS) who were age 40+ at Wave 1. In aggregate, people feel about the same amount younger…

In the summer of 2011, the Dutch Minister of Education, Culture, and Science presented a letter to the Cabinet, containing the policy objectives for the education of talented, gifted, and highly gifted students. In action plans for primary, secondary, and higher education, in addition to the development of teacher skills, specific measures were…

This article examines first-birth timing among Mexican women in the United States over two birth cohorts. Currently, Mexican women are one of a small group that maintains above-replacement fertility in the United States, contributing to both Mexican population growth and overall national population growth. Yet, the fertility timing of Mexican…