In this report, the authors examine recently released preliminary data concerning faculty compensation, teaching loads and external research grant awards at one of the nation's largest college campuses, The University of Texas at Austin. The authors use these data to assess faculty productivity (in terms of both teaching and research), and their…

President Obama and the first lady declared January 2010 as National Mentoring Month, highlighting the power of mentoring and its impact on youth. While the benefits of being someone's protege are well documented, the authors were especially excited to hear the president speak about the benefits of serving as a mentor. Discussions of mentoring…

The integration of children whose first language is not English into public school systems is an issue that many states must confront and is particularly critical in Texas. The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin) has led the way in addressing the needs of learners and schools by developing an innovative program, Language Learners at the…

To address the low priority given to university-level outreach, the authors created an outreach program that makes it easy for scientists to connect with the public, while at the same time providing effective transfer of scientific research results to the public and the K-12 community. The result is a program called the Hot Science--Cool Talks…

Both supporters and critics of Texas' Top 10 Percent law have been surprised at its popularity, but some UT officials and legislators would like to see the program scaled back. As a Texas state legislator, Jim McReynolds, D-Lufkin, knows a thing or two about influencing the voting positions of his colleagues. This past spring, when Texas House…

During spring 2001, Noel-Levitz created a student loan default model for the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). The goal of this project was to identify students most likely to default, to identify as risk elements those characteristics that contributed to student loan default, and to use these risk elements to plan and implement targeted,…

Reviews how the University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin) established a center to support its faculty. Addresses key questions related to the development of instructional technology (IT) centers through examples from UT-Austin. Discusses funding, fees, types of services and support, staffing, facilities provided, and training philosophy.…

The Measurement and Evaluation Center conducted two validity studies designed to determine the test scores to be used by the Division in making decisions about credit by examination at the University of Texas Austin (UT Austin) in Biology 302, Cellular and Molecular Biology, and Biology 303, Structure and Function of Organisms. Seventy-nine…

As he prepares to leave for National American University (NAU), Dr. John E. Roueche, the longtime director of the Community College Leadership Program (CCLP) at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin, is criticizing the direction of the program that he helped develop. Roueche is concerned that at a time when community college enrollment is…

The University of Texas (UT) at Austin's credit by examination program is described. In 1985-86, credit by examination was offered in 55 subjects. Details were provided for each of 18 subject areas in which over 20 tests were administered: Biology; Chemistry; Chinese; Computer Science; Economics; Electrical Engineering; English; French; German;…

To obtain a demographic description of University of Texas at Austin (U.T. Austin) transfer students, to investigate transfer students' evaluations of the university and of their previous college, and to compare transfer students with non-transfer undergraduate students, 1,365 responses to a questionnaire were analyzed. The survey explored student…

At the request of the Department of Mathematics at the University of Texas Austin (UT Austin), the Measurement and Evaluation Center conducted a validity study to assist in revising the department's placement policy for Mathematics 403K (M 403K). The existing decision score on the College Board Achievement Test in Mathematics Level 1 (460) was…

This report covers the 1986-87 testing year in which eight colleges or schools at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin participated in the credit-by-examination program. Test results in 18 subject areas are reported. The summary section includes a discussion of the overall impact of credit-by-examination on eight participating schools or…

A growing body of research examines the effects of state affirmative action bans on domestic minority students' application and admission rates. This study expands previous research, considering how Texas's implementation of a race-neutral percent plan influenced admission opportunities for two understudied groups: foreign students and in-state…

Describes a student-centered software package designed at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin to support student writing by helping students generate ideas, improve organization and development, and improve editing capabilities. Describes UT's basic writers and presents findings from the classroom research-based program evaluation. (DMM)