Abstract
Increasing availability of digital libraries of K-12 educational resources, coupled with an increased emphasis on standard-based teaching necessitates assignment of the standards to those resources. Since manual assignment is a laborious and ongoing task, machine-based standard assignment tools have been under development for some time. Unfortunately, data on the performance of these machine-based classifiers are mostly lacking. In this article, we explore network modeling and layout to gain insight into the differences between assignments made by catalogers and those by the well-known Content Assignment Tool (CAT) machine-based classifier. To build the standard assignment networks, we define standards to be linked if they are jointly assigned to a learning resource. Comparative analysis of the topology and layout of the networks shows that whereas the cataloger-based network reflects the underlying curriculum, i.e., clusters of standards separate along lines of lesson content and pedagogical principles, the machine-based network lacks these relationships. This shortcoming is partially traced back to the machine classifier’s difficulties in recognizing standards that express ways and means of conducting science.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson, N.: Governors, State School Superintendents Propose Common Academic Standards. Education Brief. The Washington Post, March 10, 2010. http://www.socialstudies.org/governors_state_school_superintendents_propose_common_academic_standards
Baeza-Yates R., Ribeiro-Neto B.: Modern Information Retrieval. ACM Press, Harlow (1999)
Bar-Ilan J., Keenoy K., Yaari E., Levene M.: User rankings of search engine results. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 58, 1254–1266 (2007)
Blumenthal, D.: Evaluation Approaches for a K-12 Digital Library Collection. WGBH Educational Foundation, Boston, MA (2003). http://eduimpact.comm.nsdl.org/evalworkshop/blumenthal.doc
Bologna Secretariat.: Welcome to the website of the European Higher Education Area: The Official Bologna Process Website 2007–2010. Benelux Bologna Secretariat, Brussels (2010). http://www.ond.vlaanderen.be/hogeronderwijs/bologna/
Breen, C.: Review: NetTrekker. MacWorld.com (2008). http://www.macworld.com/article/134787/2008/08/nettrekker.html
BrightPlanet.com.: Brief on the Deep Web—What is Google Missing? (2009). http://www.brightplanet.com/images/uploads/12550157301-Brief%20on%20The%20Deep%20Web%20-%20What%20is%20Google%20Missing.pdf
Cunningham, C.M., Hester, K.: Engineering is elementary: an engineering and technology curriculum for children. In: Proceedings of the ASEE Annual Conference, Honolulu, HI. ASEE, Washington DC (2007). http://www.starwars.mos.org/eie/pdf/research/asee_2007_dev_paper.pdf
De Nooy W., Mrvar A., Batagelj V.: Exploratory social network analysis with Pajek. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2005)
Devaul H., Diekema A.R., Ostwald J.: Computer-assisted assignment of educational standards using natural language processing. J. Am. Inform. Sci. Technol. 62, 395–405 (2011)
Diekema A.R.: Implications and challenges of educational standards metadata. J Libr Metadata 9, 239–251 (2009)
Diekema, A.R., Chen, J.: Experimenting with the automatic assignment of educational standards to digital library content. In: Proceedings of the 5th ASM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries. ACM, New York, NY (2005)
Diekema, A.R., Yilmazel, O., Bailey, J., Harwell, S.C., Liddy E.D.: Standards alignment for metadata assignment. In: Proceedings of the Joint Conference of Digital Libraries (JCDL’07), Vancouver, BC. IEEE-ACM. New York, NY (2007)
Felix, K.: In the Spotlight. NetTrekker. (2004). http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/jan04/felix.shtml
Fruchterman T.M.J., Reingold E.M.: Graph drawing by force-directed placement. Software, Practice and Experience 21, 1129–1164 (1991)
Gateway NSDL:ASN Achievement Standards Network. (2007). http://www.thegateway.org/asn
Hillman D.I.: Metadata quality: from evaluation to augmentation. Cataloging and Classification Quarterly 46, 65–80 (2008)
Jay, M., Longdon, D.: Death, Taxes and Correlations: A Primer on the State of Correlation in the K-12 Education. Upgrade SIIA. pp. 20–21 (2003)
Johnson A.: Summative Evaluation Teachers’ Domain. Report submitted to WGBH Educational Productions. WGBH, Boston, MA (2003)
Kamada T., Kawai S.: An algorithm for drawing general undirected graphs. Inform. Process. Lett. 31, 7–15 (1989)
Kendall J.S., Marzano R.J.: Content Knowledge. A Compendium of Standards and Benchmarks for K-12 Education, 2nd edn. MCREL, Aurora, CO (1997)
Kim G.: Relationship between index term specificity and relevance judgment. Inform. Process. Manage. 42, 1218–1229 (2006)
Kulm G., Grier L.: Mathematics Curriculum Materials Analysis Reliability Study AAAS—Project 2061. AAAS, Washington, DC (1998)
Lachapelle, C.P., Cunningham, C.M.: Engineering is elementary: children’s changing understandings of science and engineering. In: Proceedings of the ASEE Annual Conference, Honolulu, HI. ASEE, Washington, DC (2007). http://www.museumofscience.org/eie/pdf/research/asee_2007_students_understandings.pdf
Lyman, P., Varian, H.R., Swearingen, K., et al.: How Much Information. University of California, Berkeley (2003). http://www2.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info-2003
Marshall B., Reitsma R., Cyr, M. Standards or semantics for curriculum search? In: Proceedings of the 7th Joint ACM/IEEE Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL 2007), Vancouver, BC (2007)
Marshall, B., Reitsma, R.: World vs. Method: Educational Standard Formulation Impacts Document Retrieval. Proceedings of the 11th Joint ACM/IEEE Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL 2011). Ottawa, ON (2011)
McAnear, A.: What Does Globalization Mean for Education? Learning and Leading with Technology, vol. 5 (2007).http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Publications/LL/LLIssues/Volume_34_2006_2007_/February_5_/34505m.pdf
National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, Council of Chief State School Officers: Common Core State Standards Initiative (2010). http://www.corestandards.org
Porter, A., Polikoff, M., Smithson, J.: Is There a De Facto National Curriculum: Evidence from State Content Standards? Workshop on Assessing the Role of K-12 Academic Standards in States. National Research Council, Center for Education, Washington, DC. http://www7.nationalacademies.org/cfe/Porter_Smithson%20State%20Standards%20Paper_Tables.pdf. Accessed 18 Jan 2008
Reitsma, R., Marshall, B., Dalton, M., Cyr, M.: Exploring educational standard alignment. In search of ’relevance.’ In: Proceedings of the Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL’08). IEEE-ACM, Pittsburgh, PA (2008)
Reitsma R., Marshall B., Zarske M.: Aspects of ’relevance’ in the alignment of curriculum with educational standards. Inform. Process. Manage. 46, 362–376 (2010)
Roseman J.E., Stern L., Koppal M.: A method for analyzing the coherence of high school biology textbooks. J. Res. Sci. Teach. 47, 47–70 (2009)
Salton G., Yang C.S., Wong A.: A vector space model for automatic indexing. Commun. ACM 18, 613–620 (1975)
Saracevic T.: Relevance: a review of the literature and a framework for thinking on the notion in information science. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. 26, 321–343 (1975)
Saracevic T.: Relevance: a review of the literature and a framework for thinking on the notion in information science. Part II: Nature and manifestations of relevance. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 58, 1915–1933 (2007)
Saracevic T.: Relevance: a review of the literature and a framework for thinking on the notion in information science. Part III: Behavior and effects of relevance. J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 58, 2126–2144 (2007)
Saylor J.M., Minton-Morris C.: The national science digital library: an update on systems, services and collection development. Sci. Technol. Libr. 26, 61–78 (2006)
Sullivan, J.F., Cyr, M.N., Mooney, M.A., Reitsma, R.F., Shaw, N.C., Zarske, M.S., Klenk, P.A.: The TeachEngineering Digital Library: engineering comes alive for K-12 youth. In: Proceedings of the ASEE Annual Conference, Portland, OR. ASEE, Washington, DC (2005). http://www.teachengineering.org/documents/ASEE%202005-851_TE_Final.pdf
Sumner T., Ahmad F., Bhushan S., Gu Q., Molina F., Stedman W., Wright M., Davis L., Janée G.: Linking learning goals and educational resources through interactive concept map visualizations. Intern. J. Digit. Libr. 5, 18–24 (2005)
Sutton, S.A., Golder, D.: Achievement Standards Network (ASN): an application profile for mapping K-12 educational resources to achievement standards. In: Proceedings of the 2008 International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany, pp. 69–79 (2008)
USGPO (United States Printing Office): Public Law 107. An Act to Close the Achievement Gap with Accountability, Flexibility, and Choice, so that No Child Is Left Behind (2001). http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-107publ110/content-detail.html
Wallis, C., Steptoe, S.: How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century. Times, December 10 (2006). http://lutheransouth-hs.org/ourpages/publications/Article%20Time%20-%20How%20to%20Bring%20Schools%20out%20of%2020th%20century.pdf
Voorhees, E.M.: Variations in relevance judgments and the measurement of retrieval effectiveness. In: Croft, W.B., Moffat, A., van Rijsbergen, C.J. (eds.) Proceedings of the 21st Annual International ACM SIGIR Conference on Research and Development in Information Retrieval. ACM Press, New York, NY, pp. 315–324 (1998)
Widdows: Geometry and Meaning. CSLI Publication, Stanford, CA (2004)
Yilmazel, O., Balasubramanian, N., Harwell, S.C., Bailey, J., Diekema, A.R., Liddy, E.D.: Text categorization for aligning educational standards. In: Proceedings of the 40th Hawaii International Conference of Systems Sciences. IEEE. New York, NY (2007)
Yilmazel, O., Ingersoll, G., Liddy, E.D.: Finding questions to your answers. In: IEEE 23rd International Conference on Data Engineering (ICDE 2007) Istanbul, Turkey. CNLP, Syracuse, NY (2007)
Zia, L.: The NSF National Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education Digital Library (NSDL) Program. New Projects in Fiscal Year 2002. D-Lib Magazine, vol. 8 (2002). http://www.dlib.org/dlib/november02/zia/11zia.html
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Reitsma, R.F., Diekema, A.R. Comparison of human and machine-based educational standard assignment networks. Int J Digit Libr 11, 209–223 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00799-011-0074-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00799-011-0074-8