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Although the organizational justice theoretical framework has been used frequently across a wide variety of settings, its use in examining higher education institutions has been limited. The purpose of the study reported here was to begin the process of applying this framework to higher education by identifying the distributive justice sub-principles of equity in this setting. For the study we interviewed nine academic deans across diverse disciplines and identified five sub-principles. These sub-principles of equity were (a) quantity and quality of research publications, (b) external research funding, (c) quality of teaching, (d) impact on students, and (e) quality service. There were differences in the relative importance of these five possible contributions to the institution, as well as how they were assessed. The five sub-principles can be used in future research to examine higher education resource distributions and their impact more fully.

Rehabilitation counseling researchers seeking to more fully understand the phenomenon of psychosocial adaptation to disability are devoting increased attention to the impact of disability on quality of life (QOL). This impact has been of particular interest among multiple sclerosis (MS) researchers. The complex etiology, unpredictable nature, and the multiple functional limitations attendant to MS have been identified as major impediments in research efforts to develop psychometrically sound and clinically sensitive tools to evaluate the impact of MS on QOL. This article presents the results of a confirmatory factor analysis of the factor structure of the Quality of Life Scale (QOLS), which has been used in several studies to evaluate the impact of MS on QOL. The QOLS was developed to assess the self-reported QOL of people with chronic pain and evaluates the degree of satisfaction with 7 distinct domains of personal and social activity. The developers' original principal component analysis revealed a single-factor model with high levels of internal consistency reliability. It is not clear, however, how the 1-factor model fits the population of individuals with MS and how the 7 items perform in terms of their measurement of the single factor. The 1-factor structure of the QOLS did not fit the data well in this sample of individuals with MS. Subsequent model iterations that incorporated 3 error covariances provided increasingly better fit and resulted in a reasonable model fit to the data.

For the study we report here we used the theoretical framework of organizational justice to examine academic administrator's perceptions of resource distribution decisions. We asked deans, school directors, and department chairs in one midwestern state about their perceptions of the fairness and likelihood of use of various distribution principles in scenarios involving distributions of compensation to faculty and resources to schools/departments. Differences based on Carnegie classification and current position were examined. Overall, we found that participants perceived compensating faculty members and allocating resources to departments based on the quality of teaching and impact on students was most fair, but they believed factors such as research productivity and funding secured were more likely to be used. While there were no differences based on current position, there were differences based on Carnegie classification with the research universities indicating greater preference for and likelihood of using research principles and non-research institutions indicating greater likelihood of using equality.

Reading fluency has traditionally been recognized as a competency associated with word recognition and comprehension. As readers become more automatic in word identification they are able to devote less attention and cognitive resources to word decoding and more to text comprehension. The act of reading itself has been associated with growth in vocabulary. Thus, as readers become more fluent, they should be able to cover more text resulting in greater gains in reading vocabulary. This study explores the relationship between fluency and vocabulary among 119 fifth grade Turkish students. Findings confirm that measures of reading fluency are associated with differential levels of vocabulary in students. The findings are discussed in terms of further research and classroom practice for improving students' proficiency in reading.

This research study focused on the relationships among the various components of reading fluency components (word recognition accuracy, automaticity, and prosody), as well as their relationships with reading comprehension among fifth-grade students in Turkey. A total of 119 fifth-grade elementary school students participated in the study. The findings revealed that every component of reading fluency significantly predicted reading comprehension. The strongest predictor of reading comprehension was reading prosody, according to the simple regression analysis. Additionally, hierarchical regression analysis revealed that prosody had a stronger impact on reading comprehension than automaticity and accuracy. Implications for further research and instruction in Turkish students are discussed.

This study examined the relevance of the disease-and-demographics model for explaining the employment outcomes of adults with multiple sclerosis (MS). Participating in a national survey of their employment concerns, 1,310 adults with MS provided data for the study (274 men, 21%; 1,020 women, 78%; 16 participants did not identify their gender). With an average age of 50 (SD = 12.14), most of the respondents were White (92%), well educated (97% were high school graduates, 40% were college graduates), and residing in urban and suburban areas (74%). Results from a backward stepwise multiple logistic regression analysis included the following variables as best predictors of employment status: educational attainment, severity of symptoms, persistence of symptoms, and presence of cognitive impairment/dysfunction (R[superscript 2] = 0.23). The article discusses the relationship of the findings to psychosocial and career development models in rehabilitation and to training, educational, accommodation planning, and cognitive interventions. (Contains 2 tables and 2 notes.)

Surveyed rural parents regarding their perceptions of the characteristics, content, and comfort level of discussions about sexual issues with their teens. Results indicated that most respondents believed the family should play a prominent role in sexuality education, with help from the school starting before seventh grade. Most parents felt sexuality education should include information on birth control. (SM)

A study explored whether a writing-assessment rubric could be used as an effective teaching strategy with 10 deaf children (grades 5 through 7). From fall to spring, students showed significant improvement in four writing qualities and no significant improvement in five qualities. The ability to individualize rubrics is discussed. (Author/CR)

Assessment practices of 143 elementary and secondary school teachers were studied. Results indicated that assessment practices were highly variable and unpredictable from teacher characteristics such as practice setting, gender, experience, grade level, or familiarity with school district practices. Practices of many teachers reflected their own individual values and beliefs. (SLD)