On correcting measurement error in the persistence rate estimator

In the field of education, it is often of great interest to estimate the percentage of students who start out in the top test quantile at time 1 and who remain there at time 2, which is termed as “persistence rate,” to measure the students’ academic growth. One common difficulty is that students’ performance may be subject to measurement errors. We therefore considered a correlation calibration method and the simulation–extrapolation (SIMEX) method for correcting the measurement errors. Simulation studies are presented to compare various measurement error correction methods in estimating the persistence rate.     

大学生消费调查分析

根据江苏科技大学402名大学生的消费抽样调查资料,分析了大学生消费的差异及原因,通过建立Logistic回归模型证实了家庭收入差别是引发学生消费差异的根本因素,同时针对目前大学生消费的一些不合理现象,提出了引导大学生消费需加强荣辱观教育和理财知识教育的建议。     

Dropping out of university: A statistical analysis of the probability of withdrawal for UK university students

From individual level data for an entire cohort of undergraduate students in the 'old' universities in the UK, we use a binomial probit model to estimate the probability that an individual will 'drop out' of university before the completion of their degree course. We examine the cohort of students enrolling full time for a 3- or 4-year degree in the academic year 1989–1990. We find evidence to support both the hypothesis that the completion of courses by students is influenced by the extent of prior academic preparedness and the hypothesis that social integration at university is important. We also find an influence of unemployment in the county of prior residence, especially for poorer male students. Finally, we draw conclusions regarding the public policy of constructing university performance indicators in this area.     

A Model-based Approach to Measure School Achievements in Latent Groups of Students: A Simulation Study

In this article, we present a model-based framework to estimate the educational attainments of students in latent groups defined by unobservable or only partially observed features that are likely to affect the outcome distribution, as well as being interesting to be investigated. We focus our attention on the case of students in the first year of the upper secondary schools, for which the teachers’ suggestion at the end of their lower educational level toward the subsequent type of school is available. We use this information to develop latent strata according to the compliance behavior of students simplifying to the case of binary data for both counseled and attended school (i.e., academic or technical institute). We consider a likelihood-based approach to estimate outcome distributions in the latent groups and propose a set of plausible assumptions with respect to the problem at hand. In order to assess our method and its robustness, we simulate data resembling a real study conducted on pupils of the province of Bologna in year 2007/2008 to investigate their success or failure at the end of the first school year.     

Building up adjusted indicators of students’ evaluation of university courses using generalized item response models

This article advances a proposal for building up adjusted composite indicators of the quality of university courses from students’ assessments. The flexible framework of Generalized Item Response Models is adopted here for controlling the sources of heterogeneity in the data structure that make evaluations across courses not directly comparable. Specifically, it allows us to: jointly model students’ ratings to the set of items which define the quality of university courses; explicitly consider the dimensionality of the items composing the evaluation form; evaluate and remove the effect of potential confounding factors which may affect students’ evaluation; model the intra-cluster variability at course level. The approach simultaneously deals with: (i) multilevel data structure; (ii) multidimensional latent trait; (iii) personal explanatory latent regression models. The paper pays attention to the potential of such a flexible approach in the analysis of students evaluation of university courses in order to explore both how the quality of the different aspects (teaching, management, etc.) is perceived by students and how to make meaningful comparisons across them on the basis of adjusted indicators.     

Bayesian modeling of university first-year students' grades after placement test

University first-year students grades are naturally correlated with the scores obtained at placement tests. Often this characteristic leads the university grades in the first exams to be asymmetrically distributed. Motivated by the analysis of grades of the basic Statistics examination of first-year students, we discuss informative priors for the shape parameter of the skew-normal model, a class of distribution which account for several degree of asymmetry. Our proposed prior leads to closed-form full-conditional posterior distributions, particularly useful in Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulation. A Gibbs sampling algorithm is discussed for the joint vector of parameters and the method is applied to a real data set from the School of Economics, University of Padua, Italy. Our analysis reveals that the correlation between the placement test and the grades of first-year students leads to a measurable positive skewness of the distribution of the university grades.     

University student enrollment forecasts by analysis structural ratios using ARIMA-methods

Summary Forecasts for the number of students in Germany are conducted by the Kultusministerkonferenz. They use a transition model which does not allow for prediction intervals and therefore lack a measure of uncertainty of the forecast. Since the uncertainty is high for such forecasts, this lack is of importance. In this paper, structural ratios, relating the number of university students to the population of the same age, are analyzed and forescasted using ARIMA-models with outliers. Multiplying these ratios with official population forecasts for Germany provides the future number of students, additionally giving prediction intervals. This number will increase from 1.94 million in 2002 to 2.35 million in 2015. The uncertainty of the forecast is high; the forecast interval in 2015 will range between 1.72 and 2.98 million at a 95% confidence level. Supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG). We are grateful to an anonymous referee for some helpful comments.     

Using multivariate rank sum tests to evaluate effectiveness of computer applications in teaching business statistics

Arguments about using computer facilities in classroom teaching have received a lot of attention over time. Using the computer facilities will be helpful to demonstrate real-world applications, while poor data or inappropriate case studies might hinder the applications of the computer programs in classroom teaching. In this paper, we examine the impacts that using computer programs to teach business statistics have on students in the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University. The results show that students are attracted to the interactive computer programs designed for the business statistics course, and students are more motivated to attend classes when computer programs are applied in teaching. Furthermore, computer programs help students to understand confusing topics, and students feel that teaching them to use computer facilities really improves their own abilities to apply similar programs in analyzing real-world problems.     

Major League Baseball Player Salaries: Bringing Realism into Introductory Statistics Courses

A dataset consisting of salaries of major league baseball players is published at the start of each season in USA Today, and is also made available on the Internet. It is argued that such an easily available dataset and those similar to it can be successfully used by students in a first statistics course for an interesting introduction to data analysis through summary measures and graphical displays. Such an approach is most natural for many students because of a strong interest in sports and economics. Other statistical ideas can be explored as a natural consequence of the discussions that ensue from such an analysis.     

基于饮食生活型态的大学生餐饮消费市场细分研究

在食品相关生活型态(Food-Related Lifestyle,FRL)量表的基础上,针对中国大学生的实际情况设计出大学生饮食生活型态量表,通过问卷调查和因子分析,将大学生饮食生活型态分为7个构面,并以结构方程模型验证了该划分的可信性和有效性,在此基础上采用集群分析方法,将大学生按不同的饮食生活型态划分为五个集群,即五个餐饮消费细分市场,分别为:饮食保守型、饮食现代型、饮食冷漠型、传统居家型和饮食享受型。统计分析显示,相对于各因子变量,74.3%的集群之间具有显著的差异;通过不同饮食生活型态集群在人口统计变量上的差异性分析发现各集群仅在性别上存在显著差异。     

Monitoring contemporary student flows and characteristics: secondary analyses using the Labour Force Survey and the General Household Survey

This paper examines trends in the participation in higher education by disadvantaged social groups over the recent period of higher education expansion and reform. It has been suggested that disadvantaged groups can recoup by participation at mature ages and this question is examined. The data sources used are the Labour Force Survey (1986–1995), which yielded 13384 students (6747 men and 6637 women) and the General Household Survey (1984–1992) which yielded 1936 students (982 men and 954 women). From a perspective of equal opportunities, the relative participation of young people from manual and non-manual origins does not appear to have changed over the period considered, but there is some evidence of increased relative participation by people from manual class origins as mature students. Mature students from such origins were older than those from non-manual class origins, as were mature women than mature men, with consequences for employability. From a perspective of lifelong learning, the recent expansion has been successful, with more entrants from the unemployed. Considerable percentages of women also enter from full-time housework, and increasing percentages from manual work. However, as in the past, many entrants had been successful in becoming employed before entry, some being seconded by employers. Despite these changes, the greatest absolute take-up has been from middle class youth. Early employment outcomes were examined and suggest some discrimination against mature students. It is possible that the increased cost of higher education, in the context of an expanded labour market of graduates, may deter some mature students.     

Teaching Statistical Consulting Before Statistical Methodology

This paper outlines and discusses the advantages of an ‘Introduction to Statistical Consulting’ course (ISC) that exposes students to statistical consulting early in their studies. The course is intended for students before, or while, they study their units in statistical techniques, and assumes only a first‐year introductory statistics unit. The course exposes undergraduate students to the application of statistics and helps develop statistical thinking. An important goal is to introduce students to work as a statistician early in their studies because this motivates some students to study statistics further and provides a framework to motivate the learning of further statistical techniques. The ISC has proved popular with students, and this paper discusses the reasons for this popularity and the benefits of an ISC to statistical education and the statistics profession.     

大力培养适应市场需要的营销生力军——高等职业教育市场营销专业人才需求调研报告

市场经济的浪潮,呼唤大批的市场营销人才。为深化高职市场营销专业的教学改革,实现人才培养模式的创新,培养合格的营销生力军,必须紧密结合市场对营销人才的需求而有的放矢。本文在综合分析商职市场营销专业人才需求调查结果的基础上,针对高职市场营销专业人才需求态势和毕业生在适应人才市场需求方面存在的问题,提出了深化专业教学改革,造就真正适应社会需求的高素质营销人才的建议。     

适应经济发展的高校学科结构优化模型

文章利用1994~2003年的分学科高校在校生资料,进行一阶差分,用净增人数建立灰色动态模型,对2008年和2010年的在校生进行中期预测。并把分学科在校生与人均GDP的关联度作为灰色线性规划的贡献率灰数,优化出各学科在校生的结构。结果显示,需要适度减缓哲学、历史学、法学、经济学的发展速度,增加教育学、工学、医学的培养人数。     

A nonsymbolic statistics course

A new statistics course Is being taught at the University of Kentucky which does not require students to learn the symbolic language uf statistics (the formulas) Students who will never take a traditional "methods"course in satistics learn to become better consumer of the satistics fed them daily by different news media.other students who realised that munch satistics await them in graduate see this course as a good startingpoint     

Teaching Regressions an Exploratory Approach

An applied statistics and data-analysis course designed for students of public management and policy analysis, but suitable as an introductory graduate-level applied course in other contexts, is discussed. The course, Quantitative Methods for Public Management (QMPM), is a departure from traditional instruction in statistics. It uses subject-matter hierarchies to schedule the presentation of substantive material, and it integrates exploratory data analysis (EDA) and standard classical techniques. This integration is accomplished by using exploratory methods to clarify and evaluate analyses performed with classical procedures. The course, taught since 1975 at Carnegie-Mellon University's School of Urban and Public Affairs, has been evaluated experimentally through a randomized assignment of students to either a traditional introductory statistics course or QMPM. We concentrate here on the QMPM approach to teaching regression.     

Three centuries of categorical data analysis: Log-linear models and maximum likelihood estimation

The common view of the history of contingency tables is that it begins in 1900 with the work of Pearson and Yule, but in fact it extends back at least into the 19th century. Moreover, it remains an active area of research today. In this paper we give an overview of this history focussing on the development of log-linear models and their estimation via the method of maximum likelihood. Roy played a crucial role in this development with two papers co-authored with his students, Mitra and Marvin Kastenbaum, at roughly the mid-point temporally in this development. Then we describe a problem that eluded Roy and his students, that of the implications of sampling zeros for the existence of maximum likelihood estimates for log-linear models. Understanding the problem of non-existence is crucial to the analysis of large sparse contingency tables. We introduce some relevant results from the application of algebraic geometry to the study of this statistical problem.     

Enhancing statistical education by using role-plays of consultations

Summary.  Role-plays in which students act as clients and statistical consultants to each other in pairs have proved to be an effective class exercise. As well as helping to teach statistical methodology, they are effective at encouraging statistical thinking, problem solving, the use of context in applied statistical problems and improving attitudes towards statistics and the statistics profession. Furthermore, they are fun. This paper explores the advantages of using role-plays and provides some empirical evidence supporting their success. The paper argues that there is a place for teaching statistical consulting skills well before the traditional post-graduate qualification in statistics, including to school students with no knowledge of techniques in statistical inference.     

Building Bridges: The Role of an Undergraduate Mentor

I share some advice and lessons that I have learned from working with many wonderful students and colleagues, in my role as Undergraduate Chair of Statistics at Purdue University since 2008. I also reflect on developing, implementing, and sustaining a new living, learning community environment for statistics students.     

Experience Simpson's Paradox in the Classroom

Simpson's paradox is a challenging topic to teach in an introductory statistics course. To motivate students to understand this paradox both intuitively and statistically, this article introduces several new ways to teach Simpson's paradox. We design a paper toss activity between instructors and students in class to engage students in the learning process. We show that Simpson's paradox widely exists in basketball statistics, and thus instructors may consider looking for Simpson's paradox in their own school basketball teams as examples to motivate students’ interest. A new probabilistic explanation of Simpson's paradox is provided, which helps foster students’ statistical understanding. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.