Diagrams for Set Theory & Probability Problems of Four or More Variables

It is pointed out that in many one-sided testing situations for a real-valued parameter θ, the monotonicity of the power function hinges on the stochastic order of the underlying family of distributions [F_θ] rather than on the stronger property of monotone likelihood ratio of the family. An elementary proof, accessible to students of introductory probability and statistics, is presented.     

The Forum: Second Thoughts on Presidential Politics

In this essay, we confront the “conventional wisdoms” promoted throughout this long presidential campaign. By conventional wisdoms, we mean the common knowledge of politics—the things that commentators and analysts forward as taken‐for‐granted assertions and beliefs. We will revisit just a few of the campaign season’s conventional wisdoms and review them with a sociological eye. In so doing, we find that in politics, as in most other areas, conventional wisdom can be a risky source of knowledge.     

Career mobility and satisfaction of women administrators in postsecondary education: A review and research agenda

The purpose of this article is to examine the formal and informal organizational and environmental structures and processes that influence the opportunities, achievements, and satisfaction of women administrators in postsecondary education. A model is developed that synthesizes the research from human capital and structural approaches to occupational mobility and applies it to university contexts. Emphasis is placed on the structural factors, including organizational characteristics, and membership in formal and informal networks. A set of hypotheses is derived from this model. Gaps in current literature and research and proposed avenues for future research are discussed.     

Relationships Among Career Thoughts,Vocational Identity,and Calling: Implications for Practice

The concept of a calling in relation to career choice is a topic of interest in current literature. Exploring variables that may contribute to the presence of a calling is an important gap in the literature. This study examined career thoughts and vocational identity in relation to the presence of calling in a sample of 329 undergraduate university students enrolled in a career development course. The findings revealed significant relationships among all the variables of interest, as well as moderate predictive power, indicating that vocational identity and career thoughts may contribute to the formation of a calling to pursue a particular career. Limitations, implications for practice, and future research are discussed.     

Opportunities to Meet: Occupational Education and Marriage Formation in Young Adulthood

Explanations for the positive association between education and marriage in the United States emphasize the economic and cultural attractiveness of having a college degree in the marriage market. However, educational attainment may also shape the opportunities that men and women have to meet other college-educated partners, particularly in contexts with significant educational stratification. We focus on work—and the social ties that it supports—and consider whether the educational composition of occupations is important for marriage formation during young adulthood. Employing discrete-time event-history methods using the NLSY-97, we find that occupational education is positively associated with transitioning to first marriage and with marrying a college-educated partner for women but not for men. Moreover, occupational education is positively associated with marriage over cohabitation as a first union for women. Our findings call attention to an unexplored, indirect link between education and marriage that, we argue, offers insight into why college-educated women in the United States enjoy better marriage prospects.     

Teaching control and capability at alcoa

The past efforts by the Aluminum Company of America (Alcoa) to create a statistically capable work force have met with limited success. Faced with a mixed record of translating statistical training to on-the-job application and meeting demanding executive expectations, members of the Alcoa Quality, Training and Education Department are creating tools which help Alcoa develop quantitatively literate employees- One result is a workshop which gives the participants hands-on experience and provides them with an appropriate set of statistical tools “just-in time”. This paper outlines the elements of the workshop, emphasizing that bringing a process into control and making it capable is really empirical learning. Learning models are explored, and an algorithm outlining a methodology to bring processes into control and make them capable is presented.