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International students, who are also often from non-English language speaking backgrounds (NESB students), are an important source of revenue for Australian universities. Yet little large-scale evidence exists about their performance once they arrive. Do these students perform worse than other students in Australian undergraduate classrooms? What happens to other students' performance when these students are added to classrooms? I provide new empirical evidence on these questions using recent administrative panel data from the business schools of two Australian Technology Network universities. Results show strong and highly statistically significant main effects and spillover effects, raising concerns about the integration of international NESB students into the Australian tertiary environment. (Contains 8 tables and 6 figures.)

Tertiary education is now accessible even to those who appear unlikely "ex ante" to succeed in jobs requiring post-high school education. Institutions that have broadened access to their programs must rely on two things to protect the quality of the degrees they award: selection mechanisms operating during students' tenure, and effective teaching. This paper explores the relative strength of these two forces in a broad-spectrum, first-year undergraduate course. Using detailed data from the University of South Australia on student background, tutors, performance, and enrollment across 15 weeks in a first-year core course, I explore the extent to which teachers impact upon the success of their students directly (through effective teaching) and indirectly (through facilitating the dropping out of more poorly-prepared students). Results indicate that teachers vary widely in their influence on attrition and performance, and that none is robustly effective in facilitating "both" the disproportionate out-selection of students with poor initial preparation, "and" the disproportionate achievement of this group. Performance at neither of these tasks is predictable based on teachers' formal university affiliation.

Some beginning students of statistics and econometrics have difficulty with traditional algebraic approaches to explaining regression and related techniques. For these students, a simple and intuitive diagrammatic introduction as advocated by Kennedy (2008) may prove a useful framework to support further study. The author presents a series of diagrams following Kennedy (2008) that are designed for use in an introductory econometrics course as an intuitive aid when first introducing fundamental concepts of the field. These diagrams are easily used in the classroom as an enhancement to traditional teaching methods. Pedagogical suggestions and a few applied examples drawing on the diagrammatic framework are provided and discussed. (Contains 13 figures and 6 notes.)

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2005.12.001 Byline: Gigi Foster Keywords: Education; Social norms Abstract: Using a new administrative panel data set from the University of Maryland, this paper explores conventional peer effects and the effects of socially proximate peers at a large public university where some students are randomly assigned to housing. Results show that there is little evidence of robust residential peer effects on undergraduate performance. The impact of socially proximate peers' characteristics on student achievement is then examined using an instrumental variables technique. Results indicate that social 'friends' do not impact performance more than randomized peers. The paper casts doubt on the notion that social tie formation is the route to peer effects, and urges caution in the continued pursuit of peer effects in education without substantial empirical or theoretical innovation. Author Affiliation: University of South Australia, Australia Article History: Received 15 October 2004; Revised 23 November 2005; Accepted 5 December 2005 Article Note: (footnote) [star] Errors and omissions remain solely the fault of the author.

A new application of proven econometric methodology that can overcome some of the more serious empirical problems confronting friendship-formation analysis is discussed. It is demonstrated that unobserved proclivities and luck played and important role in determining whether friendships form to observable social similarities that is a significant factor.