Using PISA to examine educational inequality

The Educational Development Index: A Multidimensional Approach to Educational Achievements through PISA

This paper proposes a multidimensional index that summarizes three relevant aspects of the educational achievements, out of the data provided by the PISA Report, concerning reading abilities of 15-year-old students from 65 countries. The three aspects considered are: performance, equity, and quality. The Educational Development Index (EDI) is the geometric mean of the normalized values of those...

Using Coherencies to Examine Network Evolution

This paper explores the use of spectral analysis to examine network evolution and co-evolution. Given a sufficient number of measurements of a valued network over time, a matrix (Κ Κ Κ Κ) may be created, where κ ij is the squared coherency between nodes i and j. Since Κ Κ Κ Κ is a matrix of relations, it may be analyzed like any other network to determine which nodes co-evolve, and which change...

Inequality of Educational Outcome and Inequality of Educational Opportunity in the Netherlands during the 20th Century

Inequality of Educational Outcome and Inequality of Educational Opportunity in the Netherlands during the 20th Century Maarten L. Buis The influence of social background on educational attainment involves a paradox: On the one hand, it is a good thing that parents care about their children and want to help them attain the best possible educational outcome. On the other hand, it seems unfair to ...

Using fMRI to Examine Central Auditory Plasticity

Using nominal data to examine information integration

Functional measurement studies typically collect numerical data in order to study judgment. The new Nanova (Nominal analysis of “variance”) method allows for expansion of the paradigm to include the study of actual or projected behavior. In everyday life, people carry out actions that can be described using verbal labels, which are nominal data. Nanova is similar to analysis of variance in that...