This article illustrates the use of an explanatory item response modeling (EIRM) approach in the context of measuring group differences in science achievement. The distinction between item response models and EIRMs, recently elaborated by De Boeck and Wilson (2004), is presented within the statistical framework of generalized linear mixed models.…

Examines how judicial selection methods (appointive or elective), electoral power, and intergroup competition influence number of state judgeships among women, Blacks, and Hispanics. Reports the impact of selection methods has been overstated. Shows a positive relationship between number of women and minority lawyers and number of women and…

Research on assessing the cultural fairness of individual test items is reviewed, with emphasis on Birnbaum's three-parameter logistic model. As defined in this review, differential item characteristics are exhibited when examinees from one group have a lower probability of answering correctly than do examinees of equal ability from another group.…

Analyzes the variation in the risk of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in U.S. Blacks, Hispanics, and other racial/ethnic minorities relative to that in Whites by geographic area and mode of infection. Uses data reported to the Centers for Disease Control, and 1980 U.S. Census Data. (FMW)

This study found no differences in the performance of middle class black and white children on three ability measures. The sample consisted of 15 pairs of black and white middle class children, aged 2.5 to 6.5 years, who attended the same mid-south child development center during 1987-88. Variables on which the children were match-paired were the…

This report covers the October 1987 educational and career postsecondary activities of the June 1987 graduates from 145 Connecticut local public high schools (136 comprehensive high schools, 6 alternative high schools, and 3 endowed and incorporated academies) and 105 nonpublic high schools, and the February 1988 activities of the June 1987…

For more than three decades, the courts have attempted to resolve the effects of desegregation on educational quality and educational access. This report reviews a recent court ruling on the 26-year-old desegregation case, Mapp versus Board of Education, in relation to emerging demographic patterns in the Chattanooga (Tennessee) Public Schools…

A 20-year retrospective study indicates that the Cleveland Scholarship Program (CSP) has been significant in enabling lower income students to complete a college education at rates higher than those reported for the United States as a whole. CSP provides advisors who work individually with financially disadvantaged seniors in all Cleveland (Ohio)…

Trend data show that while the numbers and proportions of undereducated youth are falling, undereducation in the eighties, especially among minority youth, is considerable and persistent. This study uses a population-based definition of undereducation for which trend data are available for Whites and Blacks, beginning in 1967, and for Hispanics in…