"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Integrated Data Systems Link Schools and Communities: Researchers Combine School and Non-School Data to Inform Interventions and Policy (Patti Hartigan);…

This issue of "Legislative Review" takes a look at the news in higher education from March 7 to 11, 2011. This Legislative Review reports that: (1) The Senate Appropriations hearing on HB 1003, the NDUS budget bill, began Wednesday, March 9 and concluded Friday, March 11; (2) HB 1020, the NDSU Ag budget bill, was heard in Senate…

Because the transition to a knowledge-based economy requires an educated workforce, colleges and universities have made retention of students--particularly those who are academically underprepared--an institutional priority. College completion leads to economic and social advancement for students and is also critical to the nation's economic and…

In an attempt to enhance teacher and student performance in school, a learning management system (LMS) known as Knowledge-Net (K-Net) was introduced in Qatari independent schools. (All public schools in Qatar have transformed to independent schools; the independent schools model is similar to the charter school system in North America.) An LMS is…

Recognizing the association between self-determination and improved educational and postschool outcomes for children and youth with or at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), increased attention has focused on efforts to promote the skills and attitudes that enhance self-determination. We conducted a comprehensive, systematic review…

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to develop a system for automatic extraction of metadata from scientific papers in PDF format for the information system for monitoring the scientific research activity of the University of Novi Sad (CRIS UNS). Design/methodology/approach: The system is based on machine learning and performs automatic extraction…

Mothers' spontaneous teaching of their 4-year-olds was observed during block play in 230 dyads from low-income African American, Mexican, Dominican, and Chinese backgrounds. Blocks contained graphics that could be used to teach concepts in literacy, math, construction, or body/color. Coders noted how often mothers taught each of the concepts,…

In this study, a data base containing the responses of 40,000 candidates to 90 multiple-choice questions was used to mimic data sets for 50-item tests under the "nonequivalent groups with anchor test" (NEAT) design. Using these smaller data sets, we evaluated the performance of five linear equating methods for the NEAT design with five levels of…

English has become the "lingua franca" of international exchanges. This is reflected in sociolinguistic studies of linguistic landscape (LL) which tackle the coexistence of English with local languages (e.g. Backhaus, 2007; Cenoz & Gorter, 2006; Edelman, 2006), on occasion oppressed (e.g. Nino-Murcia, 2003). However, there is little…

Objective: (1) To use the available research to estimate the amount of weight gained by college freshman during their first year of college. (2) To identify potential predictors of freshman weight gain. Methods: A meta-analysis was conducted in November 2008. The analysis focused on articles published in English scientific journals between 1985…

This study investigated second language (L2) lexical development in the spontaneous speech of six adult, L2 English learners in a 1-year longitudinal study. One important aspect of lexical development is lexical organization and depth of knowledge. Hypernymic relations, the hierarchical relationships among related words that vary in relation to…

Mock outbreaks of infectious disease offer the ability to introduce principles of food microbiology, ecology, and epidemiology to undergraduate students using an inquiry driven process. Students were presented with an epidemiological case study detailing patient history, clinical presentation, and foods recently consumed. The students then had to…

Visual and verbal learning in a genetic metabolic disorder (cystinosis) were examined in the following three studies. The goal of Study I was to provide a normative database and establish the reliability and validity of a new test of visual learning and memory (Visual Learning and Memory Test; VLMT) that was modeled after a widely used test of…

On every college and university campus, common themes weave throughout identity and access management (IAM) and its relationship to Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Institutions approach IAM differently as there is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Nevertheless, all face common elements. Over the past few years, a number of…

Our research explores a virtual reality application based on Web camera (Webcam) input-interface. The interface can replace with the mouse to control direction intention of a user by the method of frame difference. We divide a frame into nine grids from Webcam and make use of the background registration to compute the moving object. In order to…