This study sought to identify factors that explained variations in state support for higher education during the 1990s, particularly in view of declining federal support and greater pressure on states to fund other programs. The literature points to a complex array of factors that shape state budgets for colleges and universities. These include:…

A study with 118 male and 87 female junior high school students in Spain using a scale developed to assess anxiety among Spanish students associated with learning a second language found a relationship between low anxiety and superior performance in the second language (English). The scale obtained predictive validity. (SLD)

The influence of school experiences on student self-esteem was explored in a longitudinal study of 322 sixth and seventh graders. School experiences do affect self-esteem, although the impact varied from year to year and discipline to discipline. Overall climate and teacher feedback influence academic and global self-esteem. (SLD)

An empirical test of a method of teacher evaluation by predicting student performance and comparing it with actual outcomes is described. Results from 6,249 urban fifth graders in 103 schools suggest that teachers can be evaluated in this way and that the best and worst teachers can be identified. (SLD)

Through maximum likelihood logistic regression analysis, assesses characteristics distinguishing teachers who return to the classroom after career interruptions from those who do not. Among 3,060 teachers, those most likely to return have fewer opportunities for better-paying employment, with more experience and master's degrees, and interrupted…

Many Americans do not have access to adequate medical care. Previous research on this problem focuses primarily on individual-level determinants of access such as income and insurance coverage. The role of community-level factors in helping or hindering individuals in obtaining needed medical care, however, has not received much attention. We…

Are occupational and work conditions associated with work-to-home conflict? If so, do those associations vary by gender? Among a sample of adults in Toronto, Canada, we found that men and women in higher-status occupations reported higher levels of work-to-home conflict than workers in lower-status jobs. In addition, we observed higher levels of…

The relationship between type of reading instruction (whole language or basal) and reading comprehension as measured by the California Achievement Test (CAT) was investigated. Nineteen third- and fourth-grade teachers from school 5 districts in North Carolina took part in the project with 215 students in the basal group and 200 students in the…

This study's purpose was to explore the premise that increasing state support for elementary/secondary schools increases equal student access to educational opportunity. Following a brief overview of the background of the problem, including a description of the so-called "Minnesota Miracle" or Omnibus Tax Law of 1971 with its provisions…

Three polytomous DIF detection techniques--the Mantel test, logistic regression, and polySTAND--were used to identify GRE® Analytical Writing prompts ("Issue" and "Argument") that are differentially difficult for (a) female test takers; (b) African American, Asian, and Hispanic test takers; and (c) test takers whose strongest…

This study investigated the relationship between employment status among high school juniors and the following: (1) grade point average (GPA); (2) scores on Brown and Holtzman's Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes (SSHA--W. F. Brown and W. H. Holtzman, 1967); (3) the level of participation in extracurricular activities; (4) plans for…

This paper assesses the credibility of a single total instrument score and various logical sub-scores derived from a series of summative judgments about the quality of teaching performance. The objectives were to compare the generalizability of alternative Teacher Performance Assessment Instrument (TPAI) scores, to compare the dependability of…

School effectiveness indices (SEIs), based on regressing test performance onto earlier test performance and a socioeconomic status measure, were obtained for eight subject-grade combinations from 485 South Carolina elementary schools. The analysis involved school means based on longitudinally matched student data. Reading and mathematics…

The purpose of this study was to explore the extent of children's access to media and the relation between the use of media and language development, including its determinants, among Korean-Chinese bilingual children in Yanji, China. Questionnaires were answered by 258 grade four students and their parents. The results indicated that these…

Data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) were used to identify the long-term effects of youth delinquency on education and employment. The study utilized data on 1,452 males and 1,397 females who were initially interviewed for the NLSY in 1979 and data collected on the same sample in 1990-1992. The 1990-1992 data set contained…