This paper explores a general approach to paraphrase generation using a pre-trained seq2seq model fine-tuned using a back-translated anatomy and physiology textbook. Human ratings indicate that the paraphrase model generally preserved meaning and grammaticality/fluency: 70% of meaning ratings were above 75, and 40% of paraphrases were considered…

This paper presents WikiMorph, a tool that automatically breaks down words into morphemes, etymological compounds (morphemes from root languages), and generates contextual definitions for each component. It comes in two flavors: a dataset and a deep-learning-based model. The dataset was extracted from Wiktionary and contains over 450k entries. We…

In February 2015 a large group of scholars, researchers, and practitioners interested in P-20 finance issues gathered in St. Louis, Missouri, for the National Education Finance Academy's annual conference, on February 25-27, 2015 to discuss, among multiple topics, the state of P-20 finance in all 50 states. There were 35 states represented in the…

The 5th International Conference on Language, Literature and Culture has been hosted by Mehmet Akif Ersoy University (Burdur, Turkey), in cooperation with Çankaya University (Ankara, Turkey) and Süleyman Demirel University (Isparta, Turkey). Our main aim has been to provide a forum for discussion, to facilitate integration in these fields, and to…

The Alberta Initiative for School Improvement (AISI) is a province-wide partnership program whose goal is to improve student learning and performance by fostering initiatives that reflect the unique needs and circumstances of each school authority. It is currently ending its third cycle and ninth year of implementation. "The Colloquium on…

This book contains papers from a conference on at-risk youth that focused on building strengths and empowering youth by giving them skills for school and life. Following an introduction titled "Motivational Strategies for Empowering Youth-At-Risk" by Dan Rea and Robert Warkentin, the papers are: (1) "The Role of Learning Environments: Social…

This volume is a milestone year for the Yearbook, the conference, and the College Reading Association (CRA). At this conference, CRA celebrated its 50th year. The title of this thirty-first yearbook mirrors the theme of the 2008 conference--"Mentoring Literacy Professionals for 50 Years." The title "Mentoring Literacy Professionals:…

The relationship between symbolic play and early language was studied in 40 girls and 39 boys between 12 and 24 months of age. Subjects were individually tested during two or three sessions by a female experimenter in a day care center in Jyvaskyla, Finland. Children's symbolic play level was assessed according to a developmental structure of five…

A study examined the effect on grades and dropout rates of students' videotaping their first speech in a basic speech course. Subjects, 224 students at a northwest college, were tested for communication and for speech apprehension using McCroskey's Personal Report of Communication Apprehension. All students were offered an opportunity to videotape…

This study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of family functioning in families who have become homeless and poor families who have never been homeless. Relying on the McMaster Model of Family Functioning, it focused on family functioning in terms of transactional patterns or the family's mode of interaction as a unit. Subjects consisted…

In this Canadian college study, 22 Japanese, English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners' translation processes and writings were examined and contrasted with the same group's first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) writing performance. All subjects (aged 19-23 years) had been educated in Japan in Japanese prior to attending English-language…

This paper describes the processes that one school district, the Visalia Unified School District (California), went through in establishing a standards-based assessment and accountability system using multiple methods. First the district's standards-based assessment and accountability system and the methods used to establish it are described, and…

A study examined instructional environment and the relationship between communication apprehension and academic achievement for freshman students in general and for those enrolled in large, introductory level college courses in particular. Data were collected from responses on a short demographic questionnaire and J. McCroskey's PRCA-24…

A method for comparing the cross-validated classification accuracy of Fisher's linear classification functions (FLCFs) and the least absolute deviation is presented under varying data conditions for the two-group classification problem. With this method, separate-group as well as total-sample proportions of current classifications can be compared…

The Lifetime Television Network has established itself within the cable industry as the only network that explicitly gendercasts its programming. Lifetime specifically markets itself as "Television for Women"; however, what that means exactly is not clear. On the one hand, Lifetime does not want to be noted as the "feminist network." Yet, former…