http://www.merlot.org:80/merlot/ A search of MERLOT materials Copyright 1997-2013 MERLOT. All rights reserved. Fri, 24 May 2013 19:47:40 PDT Fri, 24 May 2013 19:47:40 PDT http://www.merlot.org:80/merlot/images/merlot.gif http://www.merlot.org:80/merlot/ 44 34 http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=78412 Citation: Laczko-Kerr, I., & Berliner, D.C.. (2002, September 6). The effectiveness of "Teach for America" and other under-certified teachers on student academic achievement: A case of harmful public policy," Education Policy Analysis Archives, 10(37). This article presents an example of correlational research using a matching procedure with an ex-post-facto archival research design for statistical analyses. The academic achievements of students taught by under-certified primary school teachers were compared to the academic achievements of students taught by regularly certified primary school teachers.This sample of under-certified teachers included three types of under-qualified personnel: emergency, temporary and provisionally certified teachers. One subset of these under-certified teachers was from the national program "Teach For America (TFA)." Recent college graduates are placed by TFA where other under-qualified under-certified teachers are often called upon to work, namely, low-income urban and rural school districts.Certified teachers in this study were from accredited universities and all met state requirements for receiving the regular initial certificate to teach. Recently hired under-certified and certified teachers (N=293) from five low-income school districts were matched on a number of variables, resulting in 109 pairs of teachers whose students all took the mandated state achievement test. Results indicate 1) that students of TFA teachers did not perform significantly different from students of other under-certified teachers, and 2) that students of certified teachers out-performed students of teachers who were under-certified. This was true on all three subtests of the SAT 9?reading, mathematics and language arts. Effect sizes favoring the students of certified teachers were substantial. In reading, mathematics, and language, the students of certified teachers outperformed students of under-certified teachers, including the students of the TFA teachers, by about 2 months on a grade equivalent scale. Students of under-certified teachers make about 20% less academic growth per year than do students of teachers with regular certification.Traditional programs of teacher preparation apparently result in positive effects on the academic achievement of low-income primary school children. Present policies allowing under-certified teachers, including those from the TFA program, to work with our most difficult to teach children appear harmful. Such policies increase differences in achievement between the performance of poor children, often immigrant and minority children, and those children who are more advantaged. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=422540 ״״The excessive workload generated by the assessment of exam papers in large classes and the need to give feedback in time often constitute a rather heavy burden for teachers. The online peer assessment can contribute to reduce this workload and, possibly, to improve learning quality by assigning the assessment task to students. However, this raises the question of validity. In order to study this question, we carried out an experiment of online peer assessment in which 242 students, enrolled in 3 different courses, took part. The results show that peer assessment is equivalent to the assessment carried out by the professor in the case of exams requesting simple calculations, some mathematical reasoning, short algorithms, and short texts referring to the exact science field (computer science and electrical engineering).״ http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=435243 This is a free, online textbook that can be downloaded as a pdf or customized. According to the authors, "Minimal mathematics, accessible language, and a student-oriented tone ease readers into complex subjects like money, interest rates, banking, asymmetric information, financial crises and regulation, monetary policy, monetary theory, and other standard topics. Numerous short cases, called "Stop and Think" boxes, promote internalization over memorization. Exercise drills ensure basic skills competency where appropriate. Short, snappy sections that begin with a framing question enhance readability and encourage assignment completion.״ http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=452433 According to the authors, "Teachers play important roles in technology-rich classrooms, making decisions that significantly affect students' learning. Initially, teachers decide "if, when, and how" they will use technology in the classroom (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2000, p. 26). Those decisions include selecting learning objects that enlarge and enrich their repertoire of instructional techniques for presenting content. Our article describes learning objects, explores why teachers would want to use them, and explains how to facilitate their use. Our intended audience is postsecondary educators, although much of our discussion would also apply to K-12 teachers. Higher education faculty, particularly educators of future teachers, can facilitate the process of preparing teachers at all levels to use learning objects. We have chosen to emphasize effective implementation of existing learning objects, instead of emphasizing the separate issue of designing learning objects.״ http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=525875 Often economists are asked to value business. Many times the information provided is minimal and of questionable value. Data may be provided by parties wishing to bias the valuation. The financial statements typically provided are balance sheets and income statements. These sources can be fraught with errors, omissions and even fraud. The cash flow statements derived from these statements can be misleading and any analysis from these spurious statements is sure to be questioned. A set of tools exists that can use to establish the reliability of these financial statements. Reliability is usually taken for granted in basic accounting and finance and reality is often not as assumed. The tool kit uses basic accounting and mathematical logic. This logic, teamed with basic accounting definitions and conventions, allows the economist some comfort that the statements provided for use in the business valuation are free of obvious misinformation. These tools can also help uncover some less detectable fraud. For the analysis to proceed there must be two balance sheets and the intervening income statement. By applying the accounting conventions and definitions, real, probable and possible solutions are developed and explained. After examining the relationship between the financial statements one is better able to value the business and be confident of the analysis. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=531185 Often economists are asked to value business. Many times the information provided is minimal and of questionable value. Data may be provided by parties wishing to bias the valuation. The financial statements typically provided are balance sheets and income statements. These sources can be fraught with errors, omissions and even fraud. The cash flow statements derived from these statements can be misleading and any analysis from these spurious statements is sure to be questioned. A set of tools exists that can use to establish the reliability of these financial statements. Reliability is usually taken for granted in basic accounting and finance and reality is often not as assumed. The tool kit uses basic accounting and mathematical logic. This logic, teamed with basic accounting definitions and conventions, allows the economist some comfort that the statements provided for use in the business valuation are free of obvious misinformation. These tools can also help uncover some less detectable fraud. For the analysis to proceed there must be two balance sheets and the intervening income statement. By applying the accounting conventions and definitions, real, probable and possible solutions are developed and explained. After examining the relationship between the financial statements one is better able to value the business and be confident of the analysis.