An Intemperate Response to NYT Op Ed The Big Problem with the New SAT

Richard Atkinson and Saul Geiser recently published a critique of the New SAT in the New York Times. The article raises some interesting points about the SAT and about standardized testing in general but it also leaves much out and, in my opinion, contains  some serious  errors. The context of the article is vital. Much of the piece reworks the criticisms that Atkinson leveled at the SAT when he was president of the University of California and has repeated during the SATs  various incarnations  in the years since. His 2001 lecture,Standardized Tests and Access to American Universities, explained his decision to ask the UC Academic Senate to abandon the SAT (at the time, the SAT I), and depend, instead, upon the SAT Subject Tests (then known as the SAT IIs) at least until a better, nobler set of exams could take their place. There  were two problems with this proposal the Academic Senate did not adopt it, and Atkinson never explained  who would develop (or how)  standardized tests that are directly tied to the college preparatory courses required of students applying to UC.   In 2004, Atkinson and Patricia Palfrey published a paper, Rethinking Admissions, where Atkinson expanded on his criticism of the SAT I and on his support for the SAT IIs. After retiring as president of the UC, he and Geiser produced a valuable if biased historical sweep of the admission testing landscape, going back to 1901   Reflections on a Century of College Admissions Tests.  He followed it up with a le cture, the title of which sounds remarkably similar to his May 4, 2015 piece in the Times The New SAT: A Test at War with Itself. [The New SAT referenced in 2009 was what we currently call the SAT Reasoning and had been introduced in 2005.] Unfortunately, history, like the Academic Senate, let him down.  The SAT Subject Tests continue to decline in relevance. No other public university system required the Subject Tests. And the ACT and SAT had almost 1 million more  test takers  in 2014 than in 2001. Most relevant to his current criticism of the SAT, though, is that no suitable replacement has arisen as a test for college admission. In fact, Atkinsons search for the perfect test seems to depend upon it never arriving. Imagining an ideal test is easier than creating one and far easier than having it accepted. The standard formulation in Reflections  is  that  test X would have been a tremendous replacement for the SAT  had it not been waylaid by problem Y. There is always a waylayer. The STAR would work, except it doesnt. The Golden State Examinations would have worked, but they didnt. The California Standards Tests offered hope, but they were  abandoned. The SAT IIs should have been crowned, but they werent. The APs might work, but they wont. He likes to quote the creator of the ACTs philosophy on testing and extols the virtues of the ACT until it crashes on the rocks of norm-referenced testing (NRT) the same fate  ascribed to the revised SAT (a test, it should be po inted out, that will not be offered for 10 more months). Atkinson seems to require a test that will never be required. The authors  get in the standard knocks against a straw man SAT:  infamously tricky, puzzle-type items; an essay rewarding sheer verbosity; obscure language; family income; native intelligence. These criticisms except for the essay dig are primarily rooted in the original Scholastic Aptitude Test and less and less on the SAT that has evolved over the last twenty years. He admits that the new SAT will be an improvement in many areas, but norm-referencing seems to make all the difference between success and failure. There are many reason not to like the current SAT or to lament the new SAT, but an attack on norm-referencing plays into common misperceptions and underestimates the value of such measures. We are to believe that criterion-referenced tests (CRT)  provide measurement against fixed academic standards. Fixed? Criteria migrate. Criteria rapidly  migrate when money is on the line. Its amazing how much smarter students get when federal funding is about to be turned off. There is too often a fundamental misconception that measuring academic progress or academic standards is incompatible with norm-referenced testing. The Stanford Achievement Tests, the TerraNova, the ACT Aspire, the College Boards Readistep (to become the PSAT 8/9 and PSAT 10) are all Common Core-aligned norm-referenced tests. The quality and quantity of testing items tend to determine how effectively a testing instrument meets its goals. It is implied that NRT depend exclusively on multiple-choice items they do not. Test designers accomplish this, among other ways, by using plausible-sounding distractors to make multiple-choice items more difficult, requiring students to respond to a large number of items in a short space of time, and by dropping questions that too many students can answer correctly. Multiple-choice items cannot function without plausible-sounding distractors, and the Common Core-aligned exams  that are CRT, such as Smarter Balanced and PARCC, are heavily dependent on multiple-choice. It should also be noted that these CRT do exactly what Atkinson and Geiser lament about the SAT   [require] students to respond to a large number of items in a short space of time, (although Id quibble over how demanding or unrealistic that really is). As someone who heard every tick of the clock as I raced through blue books in college, I can attest that speededness does not end with the SAT. In Reflections, Atkinson acknowledges the tension between K-12 achievement tests and college admission needs: Standards for what is expected of entering freshmen at selective colleges and universities are different and usually much more rigorous than K-12 curriculum standards. They may overlap, to be sure, but they are not the same, and institutional conflicts over standards and testing are probably inevitable for this reason. College and university faculty are right to be skeptical about using K-12 tests in admissions if it means relinquishing control over entrance standards. Standards tests that provide only Not Proficient, Proficient, or Advanced or that group students into several levels are hardly sufficient for the needs of selective colleges and universities. The latest batch of K-12 assessment and exit exams concentrate on college readiness rather than success at a particular college. Moreover, the tests are often designed with an eye toward public accountability how well is this state or school district performing at the expense of actionable information on the individual student. The article misrepresents how norm-referenced exams can be interpreted. By design, norm-referenced tests reproduce the same bell-curve distribution of scores from one year to the next, with only minor differences. This makes it difficult to gauge progress accurately. A well-equated exam with a fixed reference group does an excellent job of measuring progress (well, to the extent that any test can be free of the underlying changes in test-taking population). Atkinson and Geiser are too smart to make the innumerate assumption that distributions do not change over time or that the results of criterion-referenced tests cannot fall into bell-shaped curves as well (normal, logistic, and other bell curve distributions are common in testing instruments). Criterion-referenced items must usually proceed through the same review, field testing, and statistical gauntlet as norm-referenced items. The selection process has far more overlap than NRT critics admit. The authors make much of the fact that the bell curve means that a few questions here or there can make a big difference. This is true only to the extent that the scores of the ACT and SAT are misinterpreted. Whether NRT or CRT, test consumers must be aware of the limits of a test and its level of reliability. CRTs have come under the same criticism, as a single question can make the difference between being above or below a cut score. In other words, a student who missed Proficiency by dint of one mistake is considered to be at the same level as a student completely ignorant of the standard being tested. This is an oversimplification, but no more so than the knocks against NRT. The underlying theory behind CRT has made great strides, but cut scores still predominate and those cut scores are not as fixed and as accurate as Atkinson and Geiser would have us believe. The authors  are both products of a particularly challenging time in the history of Californias higher education system. One was  the first post-Prop 209 president and the other was the administrator  charged with overhauling the admission process during that period. Atkinson and Geiser naturally see the SAT through the UC lens. When race-based considerations were eliminated, the UC had to take drastic measures to ensure equal opportunities for Californias  residents. Holistic review was expanded and the UC followed the lead of the University of Texas automatic admission program by introducing Eligibility in the Local Context, which would ultimately [draw] qualified students from among the top 9 percent of each participating high school. [UCOP website] And within the UC system, SAT II scores had proved to be as valuable as SAT I scores in predicting student success (critics, including the College Board, have taken issue with some of Geisers research. SAT scores seemed like an obstacle, so Atkinson hoped to remove them from consideration. The solution did not work even in a UC system with a relatively strong central leadership and a Master Plan that demanded inclusion. It did not work even though the UCs were the only public university with extensive experience with an alternative to the SAT, the SAT II.   It is hard to imagine, then, how such a specific solution dropping the SAT to a specific problem recovering from Prop 209 that was only partially successful (ELC was never brought to the campus level) could be applied to the  diverse system of 2,500 colleges and universities with 2-3 million new entrants each year. Should Amherst admit all A students? Should Penn drop the SAT because Atkinson thought that it made sense for the UCs? At most institutions, holistic review has long  provided an important bulwark against SAT and ACT dominance.  It would be hard to name an institution where high school GPA and course rigor are not far more important than test scores. Atkinsons most successful  tactic against the SAT may  not have been attempting to outlaw it but trying to improve it. By encouraging, in 2002, the College Board to move awkwardly and unwisely in 2005 to introduce SAT Reasoning, Atkinson helped forever hobble the SAT IIs. The College Board  took away Writing and added it to a test that didnt deserve it. SAT Reasoning could never quite find its reason. Now Atkinson  wants to criticize the College Board for making the essay optional (it will still be required by most selective colleges). Making it mandatory almost killed them! Is it too much to ask that colleges be given a choice? In his 2004 paper, Atkinson was laudatory of the as yet unnamed SAT Reasoning test. The new test will be in use for students entering universities in Fall 2006. In a remarkably short time, university admissions in the US will have undergone a revolutionary change—a change that will affect millions of young people. One of the clear lessons of history is that US colleges and universities, through their admissions requirements, strongly influence what is taught in the nation’s high schools. The most important reason for changing the SAT is to send a strong message to K-12 students, their teachers, and their parents that learning to write and mastering a solid background in mathematics are of critical importance. The changes being made in the test by the College Board go a long way toward accomplishing that goal. Many high schools have already introduced intensive writing programs for students in anticipation of the new essay requirement. He fell just short of awarding the College Board a gold star. In the current  New York Times piece, he gives the revised SAT its due before coming down hard. It is a norm-referenced interloper! He previously extolled the virtues of the ACT: [ACT founder Lindquist believed that] assessment should flow from standards, not the other way round [He] insisted that achievement tests can and should measure students’ reasoning skills, albeit those developed within the context of the curriculum. Reflecting Lindquist’s philosophy, the ACT from the beginning has been tied more closely than the SAT to high-school curricula As the ACT grew into a national test, its content came to be based on national curriculum surveys as well as analysis of state standards for K-12 instructionThe ACT exhibits many of the characteristics that one would expect of an achievement test. Except, of course, it is norm-referenced. Atkinson and Geiser reject the SAT and ACT primarily because they are norm-referenced tests. Yet there is no evidence that criterion-referenced tests will a) work across the higher education landscape and b) improve upon the flaws in the current system. In Reflections and elsewhere, Atkinson talks almost wistfully of a prelapsarian world where the College Entrance Examination Boards were tests of academic prowess where concerns about test prep and socioeconomic distortions did not exist. Perhaps he hasnt read the primary sources deeply enough. The first two decades of the twentieth century were full of laments about cramming coaches. Test prep had already become a term of derision. There was strong debate about how the boards tests of subject mastery were reshaping high school curricula, how schools were teaching to the test, and how wealthy students benefited from these subject tests. It sounded, in short, remarkably similar to the debate in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. Atkinson and Geiser believe that admission tests have a strong signaling effect on K-12 education. Interestingly, the College Board and ACT have worked to solidify the same reputation. But there is little to no evidence that this has been the case beyond anecdotal accounts of English  classes working on analogies taking over from Shakespeare. The ACT and SAT have both gone through major changes in the last 25 years. They have been more impacted by the shift to common standards than the other way around.  It is questionable whether the SAT or ACT have a strong signaling effect. What is clear, though, is that the primary goal of colleges is to signal Please attend. As Atkinson has noted, the needs of colleges are not the same as the needs of the K-12 community. Criterion-referenced tests mesh with our desire to measure what is valuable and to reconsider those measures when values change. As a society, we can choose to raise standards and accept that our students might go from a 75% pass rate to a 70% pass rate. Or we might lower standards. We might dump one standard for another. We might throw out the Common Core. We might switch testing companies from McGraw-Hill to ETS to ACT to College Board. Yet why must admission offices be forced to join in? Should college presidents ratify what legislatures decide? Will one criterion-referenced test really be able to suffice the needs of students, teachers, high schools, departments of education, testing companies, and colleges across the entire spectrum? The recent case of the Biology Advanced Placement exam is illustrative of how dependency on CRT would come with its own set of problems. The APs have to be periodically rethought because of changing academic standards and  philosophies. The Biolog y AP went through a particularly painful transition two years ago, and the number of students scoring a 5 plummeted from 19.4% in 2012 to 5.4% in 2013. The changes may have been salutary, but it dispels  the notion of fixed academic standards. Pity the institution planning on using AP Bio for admission or hoping to keep a fixed sense of how it stacked up against AP Chem. The added irony is that this criterion-referenced test went from a flat distribution of scores to one resembling a bell curve. Norm-referenced tests like the SAT and the ACT have contributed enormously to the educational arms race — the ferocious competition for admission at top colleges and universities. Atkinson first brought up the arms race in 2001. To the extent that  there is an arms race, the 60-80 year old ACT and SAT seem like poor candidates for having kicked it off.  The problem with Atkinsons analogy to the nuclear arms race is that the Cold War was a battle between two superpowers . Higher education is a cooperative and competitive jumble of thousands of institutional players.   The competition for admission to elite universities will not be upended through a change that most people would not even recognize as such  (even CRTs have scores that can be fretted over!). Oversimplifying the battle as between CRT and NRT or between ACT and SAT or between the current SAT and the revised SAT is to wish away rather than to deescalate.

Oil Prices And Stock Market In Emerging Markets Finance Essay - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1150 Downloads: 1 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Research paper Did you like this example? Investors and business analysts usually think oil prices influence stock market performances, yet few studies have shown the impact of oil price volatility on stock markets in emerging markets. To study the relationship between oil price volatility and stock market performance in the emerging markets is rather essential in that the financial markets in those countries are developing quickly and getting more integrated into global financial markets. This paper examines monthly data of oil prices and stock market indices, and conducts tests on covariance and correlation on the two variables. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Oil Prices And Stock Market In Emerging Markets Finance Essay" essay for you Create order Based on statistical inference, qualitative and quantitative analyses are derived on the extent to which the oil prices affect stock markets and how sensitive the stock markets are to oil price volatility. Introduction It is important to understand the relationship between energy markets and financial markets as it provides a good indicator of macro economy and the well-being of financial markets. Energy prices such as oil price, coal price, and propane price affect other commodity prices, which influence transportation costs, heating costs, and ultimately the stock market performance in general. In other words, to what extend does the oil price volatility affect the stock market is of great importance. Though conventionally, people associate higher oil prices with poor stock market performance or even economic crisis, it is necessary to employ empirical evidence to demonstrate such relationship. Given that the stock market capitalization in the emerging countries has grown ten-fold and the market share in capitalization has grown two-fold in the last decade (Chittedi, 2009), this paper proposes a study to examine the oil price volatility and stock market performance in the BRIC countries, nam ely, Brazil, Russia, India, and China. For emerging markets, such as Brazil, India, Russia, and China, it is rather important to emphasize the role of energy, especially oil in developing their economies. In other words, it is meaningful to examine the financial markets in developing countries that depend heavily on oil. In developing countries, higher oil price could jack up commodity prices which might cause inflation and unemployment (IMF, 2010). Specifically, this project includes collecting data on oil prices and indices for stock market performance in the emerging markets, and derives the covariance coefficients and correlation coefficients of oil prices and stock market indices. Based on statistical results, it is straightforward to conclude which markets are the most sensitive to oil price changes and to what extend does oil price affect the stock market. Furthermore, this projects looks into which industries/sectors in those economies are most susceptible to oil price vo latility; in other words, the project sheds light on portfolio diversification for risk-averse investors who are interested in emerging markets. Literature Review Traditionally, most businesses think higher oil price increase leads to higher commodity prices which in turn drive stock markets indices such as SP 500 index down. Nevertheless, not all stocks are affected equally; consumer discretionary stocks tend to perform better than the average whereas energy stocks usually perform poorly (Alpha, 2008). Some studies look at the relationship between stock market indices and various macroeconomic variables, such as inflation rate, exchange rate, and employment rate (Muradoglu et al, 2000). Using indices for international stock markets and world oil prices, Agren (2006) discovered a covariance between oil price volatility and average stock market returns in four developed countries. In emerging markets, Gay(2008) has shown that there was significant impact of oil prices and exchange rates on stock market returns in 13 countries. Spivak (2010) has discovered that the correlation coefficient between the oil prices and the MSCI World Stock i ndex is about 0.87, which translates into a moderately strong impact of oil price volatility. In addition, evidence from 1997 Asian financial crisis indicates that oil price volatility played a big role in causing the market failure or even political stability (Nandha Hammoudeh, 2007). In the last decade, the BRIC countries experienced great transformation in stock markets, mostly taking market liberalization measures to streamline the transaction process and join with developed markets (Chittedi, 2009). In other words, significant structural changes are taking place or have taken place in the financial markets of those countries. Methodology While some studies use regression analysis on stock market indices and oil prices, this project employs covariance and correlation tests across the years in order to investigate the relationship between the two variables. The analysis strives to answer research questions such as to what extent is the stock market affected by the energy prices in the BRIC countries. Among the BRIC countries, which countries exhibit the greatest influence by oil prices? Given the oil prices is globally intertwined, knowing this relationships can provide some insight into understanding the oil price and economy in a global context. To answer those questions, the study examines monthly stock market indices in the BRIC countries and oil price indicators in those countries. Those data is available on Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development website. The time frame is between June 1998 and June 2008. Covariance and correlation both show whether variables are positively or negatively rel ated, though correlation provides the extent to which the variables move together. Covariance indicates how two variables are related. Covariance determines the extent to which two variables move together and the magnitude of those movements (Grossman Livingstone, 2009). Analysis and Conclusion By graphing some selected data in scatterplot in SPSS, it is straightforward to see the directions of movement of the two variables in the BRIC countries. Based on this relationship, conclusion can be made with regard to which country is most sensitive to oil price volatility. Furthermore, one can infer from this evidence some policy implications in those countries. For example, questions such as does the local financial market fully integrated with international market or how the government should do in term of opening up and restructuring local financial markets. Statistical results from covariance tests illustrate how much the oil price and stock market performance change together. The linear dependence between two variables implies the direction of the movements and the degree of the movements. For example, a negative covariance between oil price and stock market index suggest that the oil price moves in the opposite direction of stock market index. Depending on the numerica l value of the covariance, it is possible to compare the intensity of those relationships. A zero covariance shows there is no linear relationship between oil price and stock market. Correlation test results specify whether and how strong the two variables are related (Grossman Livingstone, 2009). A correlation coefficient between -1 and 1 will be generated. The square of the correlation coefficient shows the fraction of the variation in oil price indices that is correlated to stock market indices. For instance, a correlation coefficient of +0.3 means that the oil price and stock markets move in the same direction, and 9% of the variations are related. On contrary, a correlation coefficient of -0.75 implies higher oil price is correlated with lower stock market performance, and 59.25% of the variations are related.

Patient Education A Vital Role For Nurses - 1283 Words

Patient education has been a vital role for nurses. Over the years, the importance of educating patients has shown to improve outcomes and decrease re-hospitalization. With the advancement of technology in patient education, it has shown increase patient engagement and helps patients play and active role in their healthcare. These technologies can be used in the hospital, medical offices, at home and even on mobile devices. This gives several different opportunities to education patients and different ways for the patient to choose how they prefer to receive the information. Information technology helps with patient engagement which improves patient satisfaction, experience and positive outcomes (Patmon, Gee, Rylee Readdy, 2016). These†¦show more content†¦These applications are user friendly and can be personalized for each user. My son uses mySugr Diabetes logbook application. He doesn’t like to use the paper log book and this app helps keep track of his blood suga rs and helps with carb counting. There is an area to write down symptoms and a calculator to help with boluses. There is an option to take a picture of your food to help record your meals. It also provides diabetes education and coaching for goal management. It also comes with blood sugar check reminders. This app is free or go pro for a monthly cost. The Pro version links to some glucometer devices, this would upload blood sugars to the app from your device. For a teenager, it is easy to carry your phone and not have to keep the log book to record blood sugars. This is one more step to becoming more independent with his diabetes care. While we were in the hospital when he was first diagnosed, we received a lot of patient information. Most of the patient information was given by video and some return demonstration. There was very little patient engagement. 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None Provided1 Persuasive Essay Example For Students

None Provided1 Persuasive Essay When a country such as South Africa, or for that matter most African nations, changes governing power, a sufficiently stable social basis is vital to the survival and consolidation of the new political system and transition to democracy. The history of the de-colonization of Africa forewarned South Africa allowing it to prepare for the ensuing changes it faced in the early nineties. South Africa made adequate reforms in its military in order to make the transition to democracy smooth, peaceful, and successful however despite its efforts many of the formal political changes in South Africa were not accompanied by sufficient social change. Although South Africa did have many problems in its transition, it was better prepared for the change to a true democracy than most of the other African countries at the time. In its transition to democracy, South Africa was quite different from the rest of the African countries because a single race democracy already existed. Prior to 1994 there wer e general elections with an elected official made president, however the elections only included the white portion of the population. In all of the other African countries the transition to democracy was from an authoritarian colonial rule, not from a single race democracy (Bratton 68). South Africa was also different from the other African countries that were moving towards democracy at the time because of its military structure. The Chief of Defense Force, the head South African military officer, was responsible to the Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee and thus could not make decisions that were not approved by a larger body. As long as the public perceived that the government had control of the army, it would not hinder its attempts at keeping the peace during the transition to a multi-racial democracy. The army and its actions were legitimized by the government and thus did not need to use force in order to coerce the public into supporting them (Griffiths 397). When it made the transition to a true democracy, South Africa was better prepared than the other democratizing African countries in relation to military readiness, economic standing, and the level of education amongst the general population. Despite being better prepared than most, South Africa was in no way fully prepared, and as recent history has already proved South Africa has encountered problems with its transition to a multi-racial democracy.According to Robert J. Griffiths, â€Å"one crucial element of successful democratic transition and consolidation is an alteration in the pattern of civil-military relations† (395). During the rule of apartheid in South Africa the South African Defense Forces (SADF) played an extremely important role in maintaining the governments control over its citizens (Griffiths 395). In order for the change from South Africa’s racially exclusive democracy to a multi-racial democracy to work, the SADF would have to decrease its influence over the government’s decision making. Additionally, they needed to integrate the army so that it was proportionately equal to South Africa’s race distribution, and change its political stance on apartheid to one that supports the emerging government (Griffiths 399). â€Å"Through their pervasive presence and repeated interventions in postcolonial African politics, military forces could be expected to play major roles,† and that is exactly what the SADF ended up doing (Bratton 85). This was also true for Uganda and Nigeria where their civil military relations played a pivotal role in their transitions of government. During the eighties President P.W. Botha turned South Africa into a â€Å"militarized state† by heavily involving the military in government decision making in order to assure protection from what he perceived as threats to apartheid (Griffiths 400). Prior to the first multi-racial democratic elections in South Africa, a peacekeeping force wa s needed to prevent possible riots and civil disobedience. The government was reluctant to put the SADF in charge of this because of fears that the military would not uphold the law, but rather riot themselves, in protest of the elections. A peacekeeping force of 10,000 men was put together but failed to curb the violence in South Africa and was quickly replaced by the SADF (Griffiths 400). The combination of knowing that a coup would be impossible and disastrous and the fact that the SADF is held accountable for its actions by the South African Parliament kept the military from interfering in a negative way with the elections (Griffiths 401 406). As a result of prior planning and smart leadership, the SADF successfully controlled the citizens and helped in the transition towards democracy. Despite what might look like a successful and complete change in civil-military policy, the SADF still has many problems that need to be addressed. â€Å"The complex network of security structures established under apartheid, diffused power throughout the defense establishment, making it more difficult to assure the security forces’ compliance with the transition goals† (Griffiths 400). Additionally, the system that is setup as a check by the parliament on military power is not as efficient as it might seem. During P.W. Botha’s, rule the military gained a large amount of leeway in terms of what it could do (Griffiths 401). The members of parliament responsible for questioning the actions of the SADF never fully utilized their power as a result of a lack of knowledge of the subject and were content with taking the explanations offered to them, as opposed to doing research on their own (Griffiths 401). The last major issue the army faced was that of racial integration. Many white soldiers and high-ranking officers had been in the army for many years during apartheid and as a result were extremely racist. They feared losing their positions to â€Å"less adequate† black soldiers and officers who would replace them in order to create a more racially proportionate army. The SADF saw the integration of soldiers that were not trained by the SADF as a â€Å"threat to the integrity of the armed forces† (Griffiths 402). They claimed that the black soldiers who were coming from the African National Congress’s military wing (Umkhon to we Sizwe or MK) were not properly trained to be incorporated at the command level (Griffiths 402). South Africa’s military faced many problems in its endeavor to change civil-military policy so that it supported democracy, but Nigeria and Uganda faced even greater obstacles. In contrast to the SADF, the Nigerian military actively hindered Nigeria’s attempt at democratizing. After the incumbent government planned for months and then actually held fully democratic elections, which went rather smoothly and without incident, the Nigerian military stepped in and â€Å"ambushed† the elections. The incumbent, Ibrahim Babangida had lost to Chief Moshood Abiola and quickly declared the elections invalid, claiming that there was â€Å"widespread corruption and fraud† (Bratton 86). Babangida created a temporary government that was headed by a civilian and then shortly after was ousted by General Sani Abacha. The military had installed itself at every level of the Nigerian government and completely took over the attempt at a democratic transition. The Nigerian army did not have any formal checks within the government and as a result became in affect its own political entity. The SADF had abstained from attempting to overthrow the South African government because of its knowledge of the probable outcome. The Nigerian army had likewise made its attempt to overthrow the government because of its knowledge of the fact that there would be nothing to stand in its way. Greed and corruption within the Nigerian army, in addition to the lack of a realistic check to its power lead it towards the actions it took which inevitably halted the democratic transition in Nigeria (Stamets 1). Uganda faced even more severe problems with its government and military in reference to its attempt at democratizing. After 15 years of lawlessness and fighting under the tyranny of Idi Amin, Mr. Museveni took over the Ugandan government in a military backed coup. The military was in a fragile state in the early nineties, making an attempt at democracy poten tially dangerous (Fitzgerald 1). Uganda faces many challenges in military reform before it can make an attempt at democratizing. Corruption along all levels and reports of severe human rights abuse plagues the military. Reports from Uganda indicate that anywhere between 500 and 1000 civilians were being held captive in military bases without adequate health care or food (Musoke 2). The Ugandan army also faced a major issue with AIDS amongst many of its leading officers who had contracted the disease in the eighties. This lead to a loss of trained manpower in the army as many of them began to die from the virus (Fitzgerald 4). Uganda’s military was becoming increasingly unstable and corrupt in a time where military backing was needed the most. â€Å"The role of the military is still considerable. It sits on all the groups responsible for policy, legislation and the drafting of the constitution†¦Considerable challenges lie ahead that could place severe strain on the ad ho c political system† (Fitzgerald 4). Similar to the case of South Africa, the Ugandan army needed an enormous amount of reforms if the political structure was going to change to one of democracy and civilian rule. Despite South Africa’s attempt at effective policy changes to make the transition to a multi-racial democracy, adequate social changes were not in place to prevent other problems that were steadily growing. One of the difficult problems that the new government faced was a struggling economy and a level of income too low to sustain a large portion of the population. â€Å"Without economic growth the chances of a successful transition to democracy are rather slim† and thus the emerging South African government faced a daunting task (Esterhuyse 23). According to surveys at the time, 40% of the black population in South Africa in the early nineties were unemployed. Five percent of the population controlled 88% of the wealth, and 60% of the black population t hat were employed did not make a sufficient amount of money to maintain a minimum subsistence (â€Å"Social Conditions† 2). South Africa faced a serious problem as it moved towards democracy, the majority of its citizens were not able to provide for themselves and the economy was destined to crash. One solution that was proposed was to increase taxes dramatically on those who were well off, but this would have lead to a decrease in productivity (â€Å"Living Standards† 2). South Africa, before it abolished apartheid, suffered economic sanctions from almost every country in the world in addition to the refusal of the World Bank and the IMF to lend it any money until it changed its laws. The economy was slowly dying and causing a potentially explosive problem for the future if something was not done soon (â€Å"Social Conditions† 1). South Africa faced a dilemma over what to do about the disparity between the classes. In order to provide equal services for blacks and whites following the elections, the government would have to increase its budget for black health care and pensions fivefold. After all new expenditures are added into the total percent of GDP spent on the public would rise from 10% in 1992 to 31% in 1994 (â€Å"Living Standards† 3). South Africa’s economy was not capable of handling this, but in order to make the transition to democracy it had to find a way. Some companies have begun housing projects that propose to build 200,000 houses a year and provide electricity to over a million annually (â€Å"Living Standards† 4). In addition exports to other countries had begun to rise and the government took advantage of this to lead the country into a period of sustained growth. According to some, these measures might even have been adequate enough to make noticeable positive effects in the labor market by the year 2005 (â€Å"Living Standards† 5). Client Server Architecture Essay Thesisâ€Å"There is a growing threat of crime and general lawlessness which, unless the South African government can control, will derail overseas investment which is vital to the future of a stable economy and social reform† (Kurland). In order for the process of democratization to be successful throughout the various African countries, they must simultaneously deal with political and social reforms to improve the country’s economy, education, and military. Establishing a stable basis for the new government to develop from is vital if democracy is going to take root and last. â€Å"Insofar as democratization involves the institutionalization of procedures for popular government, precious little time was available for such procedures to take root, implying that the consolidation of democratic institutions in Africa will be problematic in years to come† (Bratton 71). Bibliography:Works CitedBratton, Michael. â€Å"Deciphering A frica’s Divergent Transitions.† PoliticalScience Quarterly Volume 112 Number 1 1997: 67-93. Bvuma, Thomas S. â€Å"Having it Both Ways: Dual Policy Analysis and Evaluation of Zimbabwe Government. Information Policy 1980 – 1998.† Department of Media and Communication 12 October 1998. Online. Available: www.media.uio.no. Carnoy, Joel Samoff. Education and Social Transition in the Third World. New Jersey:Princeton University Press, 1990. Esterhuyse, Willie. â€Å"Scenarios for South Africa—Instability and Violence or NegotiatedTransition.† Long Range Planning June 1992: 21-26. Fitzgerald, Mary A. â€Å"A Treacherous Climb Up Democracy’s Slope; Musevni Takes Onthe Difficult Task of Converting to a Multiparty State.† International HeraldTribune 9 October 1992. Griffiths, Robert J. â€Å"South African Civil-Military Relations in Transition: Issues and Influences.† Armed Forces and Society Spring 1995: 395-407. Jenkins and John Knight. â€Å"Equity, growth or both? Juggling lessons from Zimbabwe for post-apartheid South Africa.† ID21 22 July 1998. 3. Online. Available: www.id21.org. Kurland, Michael. South African citizen currently residing in South Africa. Personal Interview. 27 November 1999. â€Å"Living Standards In South Africa.† The Economist 29 February 1992: 21. Matloff, Judith. â€Å"South African Schools Struggle to Make Grade.† The Christian ScienceMonitor 9 January 1996: 10. Musoke, David. â€Å"Uganda: Lawyers Criticize Army for Civilian Detentions.† InterPress Service 7 May 1991. Phinny, Robert H. â€Å"The start of a parade of African democracies?† The HoustonChronicle 26 December 1994: A19. â€Å"Social Conditions.† The PRS Group 1 September 1992. Stamets, Reena S. â€Å"In Nigeria, like rest of Africa, Military wields uniform power.† St. Petersburg Times 5 December 1993: 18A. â€Å"Zambia.† The Economist Intelligence Unit No 1 (1992): 4-11. â€Å"Zimbabwe.† Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Online. Internet. 3 December 1999. Available:www.um.dk.