Bruce J. Biddle

Causality, Confirmation, Credulity, and Structural Equation Modeling.

BIDDLE, BRUCE J., and MARLIN, MARJORIE M. Causality, Confirmation, Credulity, and Structural Equation Modeling. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1987, 58, 4-17. Increased use for the techniques of structural equation modeling have recently appeared in behavioral science journals. These techniques include causal modeling, path diagrams, ordinary least-squares regression analysis, and powerful methods for model analysis such as LISREL. These techniques offer significant advantages, and yet they appear to be misunderstood and misused by many persons. Advantages and problems associated with these techniques are discussed. Criteria are noted that may be used for judging the success of structural equation modeling. Legitimate advances and credulity are examined as reasons for enthusiasm for the techniques of structural equation modeling.

Poor School Funding, Child Poverty, and Mathematics Achievement:

This article concerns the effects of poor school funding and child poverty on mathematics achievement in American schools. A good deal of research and a lot of confusion have surrounded these topics. We begin by first reviewing these traditions of effort. Next, we present information about a new study of these effects, including the rationale for our research, our methods, and our findings. We close by discussing the implications of our results.

Comparative Research on the Social Determinants of Adolescent Drinking

Previous research concerned with social influence and with adolescent behaviors has suggested the utility of distinctions between modeling and normative influence, parental and peer influence, instrumentality and internalization, internalization through own norms versus preferences, and among cultural contexts. Most studies investigate the effects of variables derived from only one or a few of these distinctions. In this study, interviews conducted in Australia, France, Norway, and the United States provide data to examine the utility of these distinctions for the prediction of alcohol use by adolescents. As predicted, internalization rather than instrumentality is the reason for effective social influence in all four countries, and internalized effects occur by means of preferences rather than own norms. Both peer modeling and peer norms have significant, internalized effects on adolescent drinking in allfour countries, and parental modeling has significant, internalized effects on adolescent drinking in Australia and France, but not in Norway and the United States. Contrary to predictions, parental norms are related to adolescent drinking in Australia and the United States, but not in France and Norway. Reasons for these findings and their implications for studies of social influence and adolescent behavior are discussed.

Sex Roles, Classroom Instruction, and Reading Achievement.

University of Missouri—Columbia Boys learn to read more slowly than girls in American schools, and for some years American educators have been concerned about this fact and the problems it poses. Several explanations have been advanced for sex differences in reading achievement, including hypotheses based on physical maturation, female teacher bias, teacher discrimination, feminization of reading, differential response to pupil behaviors, and sex-relevant teaching styles. Each of these hypotheses is conceptualized here, and evidence for and against each hypothesis is reviewed. Current evidence is found sufficient to reject only two of the hypotheses, and it is suggested that more than one of the remaining hypotheses may be needed to explain sex differences in reading achievement. Implications of the hypotheses for classroom teaching are explored. Sex is a strong predictor of human conduct, and many differences have been documented between the attitudes, behaviors, and achievements of males and females (Block, 1976; Deaux, 1976; Frieze, Parsons, Johnson, Ruble, & Zellman, 1978; Katz, Bower master, Jacobson, & Kessell, 1977; Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974). Although controversy has appeared about the size, causes, and implications of these sex differences, there is no disagreement about the contention that male and female sex roles are different in many ways. Given these differences, it is not surprising that people also expect males and females to act differently. Indeed, expectations about sex roles and the evaluations of male and female performance are sometimes more disparate than the observed behaviors and achievements of the two sexes (Goldberg, 1968; Pheterson, Kiesler, & Goldberg, 1971). Such expectations are not mere curiosities. Among other things, they lead adults to socialize young boys and girls in quite different ways, thus perpetuating sex roles in the new generation. So strong is this influence that differences have been detected in the play behavior of 1-year-old boys and girls (Goldberg & Lewis, 1969), and substantial differences appear in Requests for reprints should be sent to Barbara J. Bank, Center for Research in Social Behavior, 111 East Stewart Road, Columbia, Missouri 65211.

Social class, poverty, and education : policy and practice

1. Poverty, Ethnicity and Achievement in American Schools: Bruce J. Biddle 2. First Person Plural: Education as Public Property: Peter W. Cookson Jr 3. Poverty, Welfare Reform, and Childrens Achievement: Greg J. Duncan and Jeanne Brooks-Gunn 4. Linking Bordieus Concept of Capital to the Broader Field: The Case of Family-School Relationships: Annette Lareau 5. Defensive Network Orientations as Internalized Oppression: How Schools Mediate the Influence of Social Class on Adolescent Development: Ricardo D. Stanton-Salazar: 6. Family Disadvantage, The Self, and Academic Achievement: David DuBois 7. Policy, Poverty and Capable Teaching: Assumptions and Issues in Policy Design: Michael S. Knapp 8. Social Class, Poverty and Schooling: Social Contexts, Educational Practices and Policy Options: Peter M. Hall

Chapter 1 Attitudes towards education research knowledge and policymaking among American and Australian school principals

Abstract In-depth interviews and standardized questionnaires were administered to samples of school principals in Australia (ACT and South Australia, N = 39) and the United States (Missouri, N = 81) about their knowledge of, and use of, the results of educational research. This chapter examines respondents attitudes towards research knowledge. Among other results, we found that respondents in both countries held attitudes towards research knowledge that were quite positive. A number of factors were also found to predict these attitudes. To illustrate, respondents committed to innovation and disinterested in leaving their jobs were also likely to value research highly. We explain the implications of these and related findings.

Modality of Thought, Campus Experiences, and the Development of Values.

This study measured values with scales composed of items worded in normative, preferential, and self-descriptive modes. Values, background variables, academic majors, and campus experiences were examined in a panel study conducted with university students

The Role of the Teacher and Occupational Choice

This paper reports an empirical investigation into the relationship between the role of the public school teacher and recruitment into the teaching profession. Our data were gathered from three groups of respondents: teachers, education students, and non-education students (1). Why study the relationship between the role of the teacher and choice of teaching as a career? In the past, career decision-making has been viewed as a process that depends primarily on factors of motivation (2, 3, 4, 5). As a result, research on entry into the teaching profession has tended to center on personality traits (6, 7, 8, 9, 10), conscious motives (11, 12, 13, 14), and unconscious motives (15). Many studies have also been made of the relationship between environmental or background variables and choice of a teaching career. In most of these studies, however, little attention has been paid to ideas held about the role of the teacher. For the most part, it has been assumed that all persons studied had similar conceptions about role for the teaching profession and that such

Parents, Friends, Siblings, and Adults: Unfolding Referent Other Importance Data for Adolescents

Abstract Few studies have yet examined the importance of referent others. One reason for avoiding this topic may be ignorance of appropriate methods for analyzing data. This paper reports two comparative studies of referent others for adolescents. (One study compared four Western countries, the other a Western country with the major ethnic groups in Malaysia.) Data were analyzed by means of the unfolding method. Adolescents were found to rank parents first in importance, followed by friends, adults, and then siblings. Parents were perceived as less similar to friends than they were to siblings or adults. Rankings of referent others varied more by question content than by nationality. Techniques and advantages of the unfolding method are spelled out.

Better Ideas: Expanded Funding for Educational Research

ehold, I tell you a mystery. On the one hand, Americans have an abiding faith in research. As perhaps no other people in the world, they embrace the empirical ideal, believe in science, fund engineering, and demand that evidence be obtained before taking action in endeavors they consider important. Moreover, they are willing to fund expensive research on a host of problems they consider important: unearthing the remains of dinosaurs; studying distant nebulae; searching for cures for cancer or AIDS; exploring the human genome; assessing whether tobacco and other questionable substances are addictive; seeking ways to defend our nation from foreign threats. Indeed, research and the evidence it generates are now involved in many enterprises that Americans care about, and they often demand to see evidence before committing themselves to action.