This comprehensive "Handbook" focuses on the most used polytomous item response theory (IRT) models. These models help us understand the interaction between examinees and test questions where the questions have various response categories. The book reviews all of the major models and includes discussions about how and where the models…

Literature on coping strategies and assessments has not previously included international students, who make up approximately 4% of university students. Results of an Internet survey of 555 graduate and undergraduate international students in U.S. universities are reported. The survey included the Brief COPE, a widely used assessment of coping…

Explores whether there is a component of mathematics anxiety distinct from numerical anxiety and mathematics test anxiety. A 30-item instrument was administered to 365 community college students. A factor involving anxiety associated with specific mathematics topics, labeled "abstraction anxiety," was found. (MNS)

Reviews a study that analyzed the inquiry-oriented matriculation tests of 12th-grade biology students (N=3650) in Israel for the purpose of finding the interrelationships among 21 process skills. Discusses the seven factors that emerged from factor analysis and indicates the theoretical and practical implications of the findings. (ML)

The Science Teacher Inventory of Need (STIN) was developed specifically to assess the perceived needs of science teachers in developing nations. The purpose of this reported study was to apply factor analysis to the perceived needs data collected from a sample of Malaysian secondary science teachers in order to clarify further the factorial…

Although the topic of effective schools is a popular one among today's educators, researchers, and publishers, there still is no commonly agreed upon definition of an effective school. One definition given by Ronald Edmonds and Lawrence Lezotte is notably precise, measurable, attainable, and easy to determine. They defined an effective school as…

This document provides an overview of the 1980 and 1981 Illinois Inventory of Educational Progress (IIEP) in mathematics. Development of the IIEP is discussed, and results and analyses of the tests administered to students in grades 4, 8, and 11 are presented. Test items are included. Factor analysis identified two factors, "knowledge of…

Many states currently offer bilingual certification or endorsement, encouraging both practicing teachers and prospective teachers to complete their requirements necessary to add this certification on to their regular teaching license. Although these requirements routinely include courses in bilingual education, the "second" language…

Provides an exercise for introducing research methods to undergraduates. The students view a graph revealing that left-handed people are underrepresented in older age groups. Small group discussions attempt to explain this phenomenon. A follow-up class discussion focuses on the different approaches and methods available for interpreting the data.…

During the 1982-83 school year the Spencerport (New York) Central School District began a comprehensive project to study the effective schools research and its implications at all levels of a suburban school system. A leadership planning team (consisting of teachers, principals, and district personnel) participated in a series of workshops and…

During the 1982-83 school year the Spencerport (New York) Central School District began a comprehensive project to study the effective schools research and its implications at all levels of a suburban school system. A leadership planning team (consisting of teachers, principals, and district personnel) participated in a series of workshops and…