Teachers,Schools, and Academic Achievement

This paper disentangles the impact of schools and teachers in influencing achievement with special attention given to the potential problems of omitted or mismeasured variables and of student and school selection. Unique matched panel data from the UTD Texas Schools Project permit the identification of teacher quality based on student performance along with the impact of specific, measured components of teachers and schools. Semiparametric lower bound estimates of the variance in teacher quality based entirely on within‐school heterogeneity indicate that teachers have powerful effects on reading and mathematics achievement, though little of the variation in teacher quality is explained by observable characteristics such as education or experience. The results suggest that the effects of a costly ten student reduction in class size are smaller than the benefit of moving one standard deviation up the teacher quality distribution, highlighting the importance of teacher effectiveness in the determination of school quality.     

Coaching und Psychotherapie — Differenz und Konvergenz

Coaching and psychotherapy — difference and convergence. A discussion on counseling between professional and personal issuesThe author discusses the relation between coaching and psychotherapy. He emphasises several crucial differences, but here he is concerned with the interfaces between these formats. He demonstrates, that in many cases psychotherapeutic views — basing on corresponding qualifications — may offer an important improvement of coaching. This is illustrated by some case studies.     

再论历史流传物——文化实践解释学阅读札记之二

金元浦认为文化的历史流传物作为集体文化记忆,是作为当时文化事件的延伸活动被记录的,是由诸多个体记忆碰撞、对话、沟通、交流而形成集体记忆的。集体前理解正是通过不断生成的第三生成物调整、修正、转换,生成新的文化集体记忆和文化集体无意识,改变传统文化意识的既成结构,形成新的集群/民族文化心理共同体。史蝶飞等认为当代中国的新兴中产阶级通过都市化的报刊阅读、旅游文化和教育选择确立起了自己独特的品位结构与身份认同。中国中产阶级的崛起不能简单地根据收入和社会行为进行界划,也不能仅仅按照西方通行的理论看待这一现象,它受到了中国特色的政治、经济、社会和文化等语境的多维而复杂的影响。罗如春提出赛义德是后殖民知识分子中惟一一位系统探讨知识分子角色身份的思想家。赛义德心目中的理想知识分子的形象就是：以流亡者、边缘人身份,打破专业藩篱,秉持业余态度,坚持社会批判,面对权势说真话,成为普适价值的捍卫者。赛义德本人就是这样的知识分子的典型代表,他也表征了后殖民知识分子带有普遍性的角色身份及其认同期许。     

Female athletic participation and income: evidence from a latent class model

This paper introduces and applies an EM algorithm for the maximum-likelihood estimation of a latent class version of the grouped-data regression model. This new model is applied to examine the effects of college athletic participation of females on incomes. No evidence for an “athlete” effect in the case of females has been found in the previous work by Long and Caudill [12], Henderson et al. [10], and Caudill and Long [5]. Our study is the first to find evidence of a lower wage for female athletes. This effect is present in a regime characterizing 42% of the sample. Further analysis indicates that female athletes in many otherwise low-paying jobs actually get paid less than non-athletes.     

Convexity-based clustering criteria: theory,algorithms, and applications in statistics

This paper deals with the construction of optimum partitions of for a clustering criterion which is based on a convex function of the class centroids as a generalization of the classical SSQ clustering criterion for n data points. We formulate a dual optimality problem involving two sets of variables and derive a maximum-support-plane (MSP) algorithm for constructing a (sub-)optimum partition as a generalized k-means algorithm. We present various modifications of the basic criterion and describe the corresponding MSP algorithm. It is shown that the method can also be used for solving optimality problems in classical statistics (maximizing Csiszárs -divergence) and for simultaneous classification of the rows and columns of a contingency table.     

A note on Läuter-type robust design for polynomial regression models

In this paper, we consider the problem of model robust design for simultaneous parameter estimation among a class of polynomial regression models with degree up to k. A generalized D-optimality criterion, the Ψ_α‐optimality criterion, first introduced by Läuter (1974) is considered for this problem. By applying the theory of canonical moments and the technique of maximin principle, we derive a model robust optimal design in the sense of having highest minimum Ψ_α‐efficiency. Numerical comparison indicates that the proposed design has remarkable performance for parameter estimation in all of the considered rival models.     

A test statistic for weighted runs

A new test statistic based on runs of weighted deviations is introduced. Its use for observations sampled from independent normal distributions is worked out in detail. It supplements the classic χ² test which ignores the ordering of observations and provides additional sensitivity to local deviations from expectations. The exact distribution of the statistic in the non-parametric case is derived and an algorithm to compute p-values is presented. The computational complexity of the algorithm is derived employing a novel identity for integer partitions.     

Bayesian predictive densities based on latent information priors

Construction methods for prior densities are investigated from a predictive viewpoint. Predictive densities for future observables are constructed by using observed data. The simultaneous distribution of future observables and observed data is assumed to belong to a parametric submodel of a multinomial model. Future observables and data are possibly dependent. The discrepancy of a predictive density to the true conditional density of future observables given observed data is evaluated by the Kullback-Leibler divergence. It is proved that limits of Bayesian predictive densities form an essentially complete class. Latent information priors are defined as priors maximizing the conditional mutual information between the parameter and the future observables given the observed data. Minimax predictive densities are constructed as limits of Bayesian predictive densities based on prior sequences converging to the latent information priors.     

明清时期土地关系演变的制度经济学分析

以明清时期地主制经济下的土地关系研究为主线,通过采用具体史籍资料、数据和一定的经济计量工具等研究方法,对这一时期土地关系与农民社会地位、商品经济、农业生产、社会发展和资本主义萌芽之间关系进行了制度经济学意义上的考察。分析认为：明清时期土地制度改革是该时期土地关系逐渐松解、在大多数时间内地权分配较平均的主要因素。