Better than Raw: A Guide to Measuring Organizational Performance with Adjusted Performance Measures

Like oysters on the half shell, some things are better when they're raw. In evaluating the performance of organizations and providing guidance for improving performance, however, raw performance measures, such as test scores or success rates, are often inferior to performance measures adjusted for client and environmental characteristics, or adjusted performance measures (APMs). Using examples from a variety of public services and data on public schools in Georgia, we compare the performance data generated by raw scores and by APMs. We conclude with guidance for constructing and using adjusted performance measures.     

The Purpose and Perception of Learning Objectives

Much of existing assessment and instructional design strategies revolve around the use of learning objectives. Learning objectives are used by faculty, by instructional designers, by accreditors, by assessment offices, and by students. But even as the use of learning objectives becomes more widespread, the definition and purpose have remained unclear. Instructional designers argue that learning objectives exist to provide a focused mindset for students engaging in the content, while faculty often view learning objectives as an administrative requirement that has little impact on teaching or student performance. Existing research on the subject is primarily normative and/or qualitative in nature (Harden 2002 Harden, Ronald M. 2002. “Learning Outcomes and Instructional Objectives: Is There a Difference?” Medical Teacher 24 (2):151–155.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Torrance 2007 Torrance, Harry. 2007. “Assessment as Learning? How the Use of Explicit Learning Objectives, Assessment Criteria and Feedback in Post-Secondary Education and Training Can Come to Dominate Learning.” Assessment in Education 14 (3):281–94. doi:10.1080/09695940701591867.[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]). In this article, the researchers seek to use empirical evidence to examine the definitions, purpose, and impact of learning objectives on student performance. We find that there is no shared understanding of definitions and purpose, and using an experimental design, we find that learning objective wording and use in the classroom does not affect student performance.     

Federalism and democratization in Russia

The scholarly literature on democratic transitions has largely ignored developments at the local level and the relationship between federalism and democracy. In this work I examine the development of federalism in Russia and I assess the impact of Russia's highly asymmetrical form of federalism on democratisation. The study shows that federalism far from promoting democracy has allowed authoritarianism to flourish in many of Russia's eighty nine regions and republics. Federalism and democratization in Russia exist in contradiction rather than harmony. In a vicious circle, authoritarianism at the centre has been nourished by authoritarianism in the region and vice versa. “Elective dictatorships” and “delegative democracies” are now well entrenched in many republics, and mini-presidential systems are firmly established in a majority of the regions.     

Suicide far from home: the concept of transjurisdictional suicide

A review of a series of eleven persons who committed suicide in a city long distances from home is presented, and the concept of transjurisdictional suicide is introduced. Those eleven cases suggest a high likelihood that the victim will be found in a hotel or motel bed by a hotel/motel employee within a day of check-in; the victim will be a white male who drove to the city and who lived in a hometown closely associated with an urban center which is within a day's drive and on an interstate route connecting the hometown to the city selected; the victim will be older than twenty-one years, married or never married but not divorced or widowed, and will not have been born in the state where death occurred; a suicide message will be found, and a specific reason for selecting a given city will not be apparent.     

Rorty's Poetic Politics

In reading Rorty as political theorists we must separate his critique of epistemology from his advocacy of a new style of philosophy. If we concentrate on the detail and presuppositions of the latter, we will find insufficient reason to grant that his political project is coherent or that it derives any support from his attack on 'Enlightenment' philosophy. We will see that historicist accounts can never reasonably compel belief; that no-one (save the epistemologist manque craving a role) could accept that there is a compelling social need for poetic and literary exclamations; and that great men cannot be allowed to set our political agenda.