High Stakes, but Low Validity? A Case Study of Standardized Tests and Admissions into New York City Specialized High Schools

This is a study of the admissions process at a select group of New York City public high schools. It offers the first detailed look at the admissions practices of this highly regarded and competitive group of schools, and also provides a window into the broader national debate about the use of standardized tests in school admissions. According to New York State law, admission to these schools must be based solely on an exam. The exam used is called the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT). This study makes use of the individual test results from 2005 and 2006.</p

Estimating the Open Market Desk's Daily Reaction Function.

This paper presents the results of an empirical investigation into the proximate determinants of the Federal Reserve's daily open market operations. Using information available each morning at the Fed conference call, the author models the Open Market Desk's choice of both the quantity and the type of operation, using a friction model for the former and a multinomial logit framework for the latter. Different types of operations are shown to send different signals to the market about the underlying thrust of Fed policy and open market operations in recent years are shown to have become increasingly keyed to the federal funds rate. Copyright 1993 by Ohio State University Press.