Children’s Cultural Capital and Teachers’ Assessments of Effort and Ability: The Influence of School Sector

Bourdieu (1973) theorized that differences in social background correspond to differences in possession of cultural resources (cultural capital), as well as the orientation to those resources (habitus). Additionally, Bourdieu argued that struggles for power occur in different settings (fields). His essay reviews Bourdieu’s main ideas and describes how they may apply to the American educational system. In particular, two setting are considered; public elementary schools and Catholic elementary schools. Based in analyses using data form the Early Childhood, Longitudinal Study (ECLS), Catholic school kindergartners are more likely to participate in arts activities, and their parents are more likely to be involved in and comfortable with the school environment. Regression analysis show that arts lessons and attendance at arts events do not affect teachers’ perceptions of the effort or ability of students in either public or Catholic schools. Parents’ orientation toward school has more of an effect in public than in Catholic schools. In public schools, attending open houses and conferences, volunteering, and feeling unwelcome at school all affect teachers’ evaluations of students’ effort and ability, while only attendance at school events and conferences affect teachers’ perceptions in Catholic schools. These findings suggest that the traditional definition of cultural capital may not be appropriate for young American children, that parents’ orientation toward schooling should be included in future studies of educational stratification, and that more research is needed in the examination of public-Catholic school differences in cultural resources

Passion-Driven Statistics: A course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE)

This paper describes the use of scientific practices in the Passion-Driven Statistics CURE and presents the results of surveys from the implementation of this CURE at three different colleges. Overall, students experienced positive changes in thinking and working like a scientist, personal gains related to research, and gains in research skills, attitudes and behaviors. The Passion-Driven Statistics CURE aims to equip the future STEM workforce with the data analysis skills and reasoning needed across industries

Passion-Driven Statistics: A course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE)

This paper describes the use of scientific practices in the Passion-Driven Statistics CURE and presents the results of surveys from the implementation of this CURE at three different colleges. Overall, students experienced positive changes in thinking and working like a scientist, personal gains related to research, and gains in research skills, attitudes and behaviors. The Passion-Driven Statistics CURE aims to equip the future STEM workforce with the data analysis skills and reasoning needed across industries

Factors Associated with Revision Surgery after Internal Fixation of Hip Fractures

Background: Femoral neck fractures are associated with high rates of revision surgery after management with internal fixation. Using data from the Fixation using Alternative Implants for the Treatment of Hip fractures (FAITH) trial evaluating methods of internal fixation in patients with femoral neck fractures, we investigated associations between baseline and surgical factors and the need for revision surgery to promote healing, relieve pain, treat infection or improve function over 24 months postsurgery. Additionally, we investigated factors associated with (1) hardware removal and (2) implant exchange from cancellous screws (CS) or sliding hip screw (SHS) to total hip arthroplasty, hemiarthroplasty, or another internal fixation device. Methods: We identified 15 potential factors a priori that may be associated with revision surgery, 7 with hardware removal, and 14 with implant exchange. We used multivariable Cox proportional hazards analyses in our investigation. Results: Factors associated with increased risk of revision surgery included: female sex, [hazard ratio (HR) 1.79, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.25-2.50; P = 0.001], higher body mass index (fo

Children’s Cultural Capital and Teachers’ Assessments of Effort and Ability: The Influence of School Sector

Bourdieu (1973) theorized that differences in social background correspond to differences in possession of cultural resources (cultural capital), as well as the orientation to those resources (habitus). Additionally, Bourdieu argued that struggles for power occur in different settings (fields). His essay reviews Bourdieu’s main ideas and describes how they may apply to the American educational system. In particular, two setting are considered; public elementary schools and Catholic elementary schools. Based in analyses using data form the Early Childhood, Longitudinal Study (ECLS), Catholic school kindergartners are more likely to participate in arts activities, and their parents are more likely to be involved in and comfortable with the school environment. Regression analysis show that arts lessons and attendance at arts events do not affect teachers’ perceptions of the effort or ability of students in either public or Catholic schools. Parents’ orientation toward school has more of an effect in public than in Catholic schools. In public schools, attending open houses and conferences, volunteering, and feeling unwelcome at school all affect teachers’ evaluations of students’ effort and ability, while only attendance at school events and conferences affect teachers’ perceptions in Catholic schools. These findings suggest that the traditional definition of cultural capital may not be appropriate for young American children, that parents’ orientation toward schooling should be included in future studies of educational stratification, and that more research is needed in the examination of public-Catholic school differences in cultural resources

The Effect of Mothers’ Educational Credentials on Children’s Outcomes: Does Being a First-Generation or Continuing Generation College Graduate Matter?

We examine the cumulative effects of mothers’ and grandparents’ institutionalized cultural capital (educational credentials) on parenting approaches and children’s educational outcomes to determine if degree attainment in one generation equalizes educational advantages for children. Using data on kindergarteners, first-graders, and their mothers from the 1998 to 1999 Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, we find minor differences in parenting approaches: When grandparents and mothers all have college degrees (Continuing-Generation), children are involved in more activities and have more books at home; however, school involvement is similar whether mothers have more education than their parents (First-Generation) or are Continuing-Generation. There are no differences between children of First- or Continuing-Generation mothers in how they are rated for effort by teachers. Differences in first-grade math achievement scores between children of First- and Continuing-Generation mothers disappear once controlling for parenting approaches. However, significant differences remain between the groups in how teachers rate the children’s language and literacy skills, even after controlling for parenting approaches. These findings imply that attaining a college degree may not benefit the children of First-Generation mothers to the same extent that it does the children of Continuing-Generation mothers for some academic outcomes. Moreover, children whose mothers and grandparents have only high school diplomas are at a disadvantage compared to children of First-Generation mothers for first grade math achievement and language and literacy ratings, as well as for growth in these outcomes between kindergarten and first grade

Computational Methods for Intelligent Information Access

Currently, most approaches to retrieving textual materials from scientific databases depend on a lexical match between words in users' requests and those in or assigned to documents in a database. Because of the tremendous diversity in the words people use to describe the same document, lexical methods are necessarily incomplete and imprecise. Using the singular value decomposition (SVD), one can take advantage of the implicit higher-order structure in the association of terms with documents by determining the SVD of large sparse term by document matrices. Terms and documents represented by 200-300 of the largest singular vectors are then matched against user queries. We call this retrieval method Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) because the subspace represents important associative relationships between terms and documents that are not evident in individual documents. LSI is a completely automatic yet intelligent indexing method, widely applicable, and a promising way to..

The arts and achievement in at-risk youth: findings from four longitudinal studies

This report examines the academic and civic behavior outcomes of teenagers and young adults who have engaged deeply with the arts in or out of school. In several small-group studies, children and teenagers who participated in arts education programs have shown more positive academic and social outcomes in comparison to students who did not participate in those programs. Such studies have proved essential to the current research literature on the types of instrumental benefits associated with an arts education. A standard weakness of the literature, however, has been a dearth of large-scale, longitudinal studies following the same populations over time, tracking the outcomes of students who received intensive arts exposure or arts learning compared with students who did not. "The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth" is a partial attempt to fill this knowledge gap. The authors use four large national databases to analyze the relationship between arts involvement and academic and social achievements. This report displays correlations between arts activity among at-risk youth and subsequent levels of academic performance and civic engagement. For this task, the authors relied on four large longitudinal databases. Each source has unique strengths and limitations in terms of study sample size, age range, and the types of variables included--whether related to arts involvement (in-school and/or extracurricular), academic progress, or social and/or civic participation. Yet after accounting for these differences, three main conclusions arise: (1) Socially and economically disadvantaged children and teenagers who have high levels of arts engagement or arts learning show more positive outcomes in a variety of areas than their low-arts-engaged peers; (2) At-risk teenagers or young adults with a history of intensive arts experiences show achievement levels closer to, and in some cases exceeding, the levels shown by the general population studied; and (3) Most of the positive relationships between arts involvement and academic outcomes apply only to at-risk populations (low-SES). But positive relationships between arts and civic engagement are noted in high-SES groups as well. Meet the Databases is appended. (Contains 11 notes.