The Elite Illusion: Achievement Effects at Boston and New York Exam Schools

Parents gauge school quality in part by the level of student achievement and a school's racial and socioeconomic mix. The importance of school characteristics in the housing market can be seen in the jump in house prices at school district boundaries where peer characteristics change. The question of whether schools with more attractive peers are really better in a value‐added sense remains open, however. This paper uses a fuzzy regression‐discontinuity design to evaluate the causal effects of peer characteristics. Our design exploits admissions cutoffs at Boston and New York City's heavily over‐subscribed exam schools. Successful applicants near admissions cutoffs for the least selective of these schools move from schools with scores near the bottom of the state SAT score distribution to schools with scores near the median. Successful applicants near admissions cutoffs for the most selective of these schools move from above‐average schools to schools with students whose scores fall in the extreme upper tail. Exam school students can also expect to study with fewer nonwhite classmates than unsuccessful applicants. Our estimates suggest that the marked changes in peer characteristics at exam school admissions cutoffs have little causal effect on test scores or college quality.     

Benchmarking of secondary schools based on Students’ results in higher education

The performance of secondary schools is usually assessed based on students’ results on national exams at the end of secondary education. This research uses data on academic achievements by first-year university students to benchmark secondary schools on their ability to lead students to success in higher education. The analysis is conducted using data of University of Porto and Catholic University of Porto, Portugal, for a three-year period, corresponding to more than 10.000 students from 65 degrees, for which the school of origin is known. A number of variables representing students’ success in Higher education were constructed for each school in our sample and aggregated through a Benefit of the Doubt indicator. Results suggest that the schools’ ranking based on schools’ ability to prepare students for university success is quite different from the ranking based on results on national exams. Given these findings, we propose complementing schools’ performance assessments (traditionally based on national exam results or indicators of value added) with indicators that account for the preparation of students for success in future challenges, which is indisputably a key objective of secondary education. We propose a composite indicator for the analysis of these complementary aims as well, and results show that frontier units indeed exhibit trade offs between traditional measures of performance and our new measure of performance.     

ACADEMIC ADMISSIONS STANDARDS: IMPLICATIONS FOR OUTPUT,DISTRIBUTION, AND MOBILITY

We examine the trade‐offs implicit in academic admissions standards when students are charged cost‐based tuition and offered loans that remove liquidity constraints. Lowering entry requirements while holding graduation requirements fixed increases aggregate output and promotes a more equal distribution of wages, but reduces relative income mobility and diminishes the scope for affirmative action. Lowering admissions standards while raising graduation requirements, so that the number of graduates remains constant, has little direct effect on output, distribution, or mobility, but again reduces the scope for affirmative action. Income‐based affirmative action offers a better trade‐off between output and relative mobility than income‐neutral admissions. (JEL: D31, H42, I23, I28, J24)     

Advancing post-merger integration studies: A study of a persistent organizational routine and embeddedness in broader societal context

Studies analyzing organizational routines in post-merger integration (PMI) studies at the micro level are almost nonexistent. To fill this research gap, the author performs a longitudinal exploratory case study of an admissions routine of an art college undergoing a merger with a larger university, drawing on advances in routine dynamics literature. The study enhances understanding of PMI challenges by depicting routines' internal dynamics, their incompatibility, and the role of broader context in shaping their performances post-merger. The findings trace resistance to PMI to routine incompatibility caused by the simultaneous presence of multiple understandings (ostensive aspects) for integration, generated by the quest for efficiency-based synergies and continuity within the university post-merger, and for preservation, inherited from the pre-merger era and the routine embeddedness within the local context. The findings shed new light on the post-merger integration–preservation dilemma by illustrating how the interplay of routine participants’ agency and routine embeddedness within the organization and broader societal context constrains PMI, in spite of an intended full consolidation plan, as routine participants enact the routine in the emerging context.     

DEVELOPING MARKETING STRATEGIES AND TACTICS IN HIGHER EDUCATION THROUGH TARGET MARKET RESEARCH

This paper describes research undertaken by a large midwestern university to determine the needs of the market it serves, to ascertain the image of the university, to develop procedures for identifying potential students with a high probability of matriculating and procedures for increasing the probability of matriculation. The population studied was prospective students who submitted ACT profiles. A modified Fishbein instrument was used for measuring their image of the university. Factor analysis was used to reduce 102 ACT variables to 20. These variables plus others developed through literature search and the image study were included in the set of input variables used in multiple discriminant analysis. The resulting classification functions provided a means for identifying variables important to each individual's matriculation decision and providing them with information designed to increase his/her awareness of the attractiveness of the university.     

Exact and heuristic approaches for the automated design of medical trainees rotation schedules

This article addresses the problem of designing rotation schedules for the training of medical students in a healthcare institution in Colombia. Rotations are carried out along the course of a six months time period during which students rotate through different services both during one or multiple fortnightly periods. The hospital receives trainees from different universities that present heterogeneous requirements, and must accomplish different rotations constraints even in those cases when they come from the same university. Two different approaches are proposed to tackle the problem. First, a mathematical programming model is considered. Secondly, a metaheuristic approach based on Variable Neighborhood Search is adapted to solve the problem in an efficient manner. In both cases the objective function is proposed to be either a linear or a quadratic function that seeks a stable allocation of personnel to the services all along the considered time horizon. The proposed techniques are implemented as a part of a basic spreadsheet that helps personnel in charge generate, validate and fix the proposed plans as needed. The effectiveness of the methodology is tested through ex-post analysis, comparing it against schedules generated by the personnel in charge at the hospital, and over simulated data. The results indicate that the applied metaheuristic is competitive against specialized optimization software and facilitates the work of optimization for the health professionals in charge, reducing the planning tasks from several days to minutes.     

Neuere Entwicklungen psychologischer Beratung für Studierende am Beispiel von Online-Beratung

Developments in psychological students’ counselling on the example of online-counselingSince “medialisation” seems actually to be one of the central challenges in the organization field of (German) universities as well as counseling, the author takes up this discussion by referring on the example of online-counseling for students. A general survey is given on psychological counseling on German universities, “conventional” psychological counseling, e.g. in the university region of Hanover. The introduction process of the meanwhile since three semesters tested online-counseling for students and the implementation of this project in the organization structure of the psychological/therapeutic counseling center in Hanover is reported. Furthermore information is given on results of a students’ survey on their acceptance of online-counseling. Concluded will be with a tentative synthesis on possibilities and limitations of this interactive counseling project.     

Bringing industry into an undergraduate agribusiness course

The current changes in agriculture, often referred to as industrialization, are creating a work environment for agribusiness employees that is more complex than ever before. It is paramount that agricultural economics and agribusiness programs adequately prepare students for this changing work environment. In particular it is essential to help students develop good analytical and communications skills. Specifically students need to be able to integrate ideas from different areas, identify similarities and differences, identify alternative courses of action, analyze the consequences of the alternative actions and communicate the implications of the action. This paper reports on a successful agribusiness capstone course that made extensive use of active learning techniques and brought industry into the undergraduate course. The format of the course as well as the benefits derived for the students, the university, and industry are discussed in the paper. In addition the factors that lead to the success of the course as well as those factors that were a constraint are identified. Readers can take from this example the ideas that will work for them to incorporate into their courses.     

Allocation of seminar applicants

The allocation of seminar applicants is an important issue in educational planning, and each semester a university administration has to deal with this kind of problem. The task here is to reconcile the preferences and priorities of the students, professorships and the university administration itself. This paper shows that if the planning procedure is based on a simple selection strategy, the capacity utilization can be suboptimal; this result is evidenced by a simulation study. To remedy this deficit—and to justify the respective interests—we propose a mixed-integer goal programming approach for assigning students to seminar courses. In addition, we show that this problem can be reformulated into a linear one. All investigations in this paper are illustrated by a real-world application for the University of Hagen, Germany.     

服务品牌名字的暗示性对消费者决策的影响——基于服务业的新视角

品牌名字是品牌的第一要素,品牌命名在品牌要素选择中处于中心地位,是建立品牌资产的重要手段之一。从暗示性品牌名字的角度切入,借鉴国内外已有的研究成果,系统分析中国服务业领域中暗示性品牌名字对消费者品牌态度的影响。对来自某大学的170名MBA学生和186名普通学生参加的两个实验进行数据收集,然后进行方差分析。研究结果表明,在餐馆、宾馆和心理咨询服务中,品牌名字的暗示性与广告信息之间会产生交互作用,暗示性的品牌名字与广告信息越一致,越容易刺激消费者正面的情感,越能激发消费者正面的广告态度和品牌态度;在保险服务中,虽然暗示性品牌名字与广告信息的一致性可以带来消费者积极的广告和品牌态度,但是却不能激发消费者正面的情感状态。此外,感知风险是重要的中介变量。     

Quality insights of university students on dying, death, and death education--a preliminary study in Hong Kong

Death is a subject seldom studied in school and often misunderstood and feared by many people. Children often learn about death from their family and mass media. From the literature review on dying, death, and death education, it may be concluded that people are generally ignorant about the issues of death and dying. There is a need to investigate what young people, such as university students, know about death and dying, and their attitudes toward them. Eight university students were recruited for this study. Most participants have had death experiences. They seldom talked about death and loss. Some of these experiences were quite pleasant but some of them were not. Most participants addressed the need to have "life and death" education in schools at their young age. Such a need is further supported by the incidents of two participants who attempted suicide unsuccessfully when they encountered a life problem which they could not solve.     

Affirmative Action in Higher Education: How Do Admission and Financial Aid Rules Affect Future Earnings?

This paper addresses how changing the admission and financial aid rules at colleges affects future earnings. I estimate a structural model of the following decisions by individuals: where to submit applications, which school to attend, and what field to study. The model also includes decisions by schools as to which students to accept and how much financial aid to offer. Simulating how black educational choices would change were they to face the white admission and aid rules shows that race‐based advantages had little effect on earnings. However, removing race‐based advantages does affect black educational outcomes. In particular, removing advantages in admissions substantially decreases the number of black students at top‐tier schools, while removing advantages in financial aid causes a decrease in the number of blacks who attend college.     

Multiversity of the twenty-first century – examining opportunities for integrating community engagement in planning curricula

Abstract

This paper examines student-community engagement activity in planning. This is a subset of university–community engagement, and is a point of overlap between such engagement and planning education. Community engagement activity enables students to learn in situ practical skills within live projects, while community partners may benefit from technical knowhow, and labour input. Based on a UK-wide survey and three in-depth case studies, the paper explores the pedagogical designs underpinning community engagement activities involving students, as well as the various capacities in which the different participants – students, instructors and community members – act. The analysis reveals considerable diversity in approaches. An alignment of student engagement activities in the planning curriculum with emerging transformative co-learning models of university-community engagement could offer novel opportunities for the discipline of planning and their impact on communities as well as the fields standing in today’s multiversities.     

College student bereavement experience in a Christian university

As part of the National College Grief Study, college student bereavement experience was examined specifically in a Christian university climate. Sex, year in school, and closeness to the deceased were measured in terms of academic and mental health outcomes and resources utilized. Females reported more mental health problems when close to the deceased, and seniors were less likely than first year students to utilize personal support resources of family and religion. During close losses, students experienced more mental health problems and negative social outcomes, but they did not access more resources. Recommendations for university personnel and suggestions for further research are given.     

Education DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A TOOL FOR ASSIGNING STUDENTS TO GROUPS FOR CLASS PROJECTS*

Group project work is an integral part of many university courses. Assigning students to project groups can be difficult because of the students' diverse backgrounds. Many instructors therefore decide not to assign group projects. This paper develops and validates an instrument that assigns both experienced and inexperienced students to different project groups, thereby creating a balanced, fair environment. The instrument is checked for reliability and validity and then is used to assign students to different project groups. Based on group performance, the end-of-the-semester results also are provided. Path analysis is used to test a causal model. Conclusions and implications for future research are presented.     

SCAT AND SPAT: LARGE-SCALE COMPUTER-BASED OPTIMIZATION SYSTEMS FOR THE PERSONNEL ASSIGNMENT PROBLEM

The personnel assignment problem involves the assignment of people to tasks, projects, etc., in a manner that maximizes a measure of aggregate utility for the assignees subject to several assignment constraints. In addition to computationally efficient solution algorithms, the effective implementation of mathematical models to solve the personnel assignment problem must include data processing systems with comprehensive error checking/resolution procedures, end user reports, documentation, and training. This paper summarizes two successful computer-based systems for solving large-scale personnel assignment problems that frequently occur in university settings. SCAT, the Student-Company Assignment Technique, assigns students to job interview slots. SPAT, the Student-Project Assignment Technique, assigns students to project teams in an MBA field project course. The SCAT and SPAT approaches can be generalized to a wide variety of personnel assignment problems in university, industry, government, and military settings.     

A STUDY OF TIMING AND WITHDRAWALS OF STUDENT ADMISSIONS APPLICATIONS*

This study explores two important characteristics of admissions applications to an M.B.A. and M.P.A. program: the timing of applications throughout the year preceding entrance, and the withdrawal rate by students whose applications have been accepted. Specifically, for the years 1961 through 1967, the aggregate patterns of timing and withdrawals (across all applications) are compared to the corresponding data for four groups of applications, ranging from low quality to high quality. (Quality is measured in terms of a first-year predicted grade point average, and is estimated by a linear regression equation using the applicant's total ATGSB score and his undergraduate grade point average.) The results are in the expected directions: “better” students tend to apply earlier, and also have a higher tendency to withdraw after their applications have been accepted. Potential usefulness of the results in forecasting total applications and estimating withdrawal rates is explored.     

THE EFFECT OF FINANCIAL REWARDS ON STUDENTS' ACHIEVEMENT: EVIDENCE FROM A RANDOMIZED EXPERIMENT4

This paper reports on a randomized field experiment in which first‐year university students could earn financial rewards for passing all first‐year requirements within one year. Financial incentives turn out to have positive effects on achievement of high‐ability students, whereas they have a negative impact on achievement of low‐ability students. After three years these effects have increased, suggesting dynamic spillovers. The negative effects for less‐able students are consistent with results from psychology and behavioral economics showing that external rewards may be detrimental for intrinsic motivation. (JEL: I21, I22, J24)     

University Quality and Labour Market Outcomes in Italy

Abstract. This paper uses proxies for university quality derived from Performance Indicators to evaluate the impact of university quality on the early labour market outcome of a cohort of recent Italian graduates. Institutional research quality is found to have a negative effect on the probability that both male and female graduates will be overeducated. Additionally, research inputs are positively related to men's wages. In contrast, teaching quality does not appear to enhance students’ economic success.