There is a broad literature in multiple-choice test development, both in terms of item-writing guidelines, and psychometric functionality as a measurement tool. However, most of the published literature concerns multiple-choice testing in the context of expert-designed high-stakes standardized assessments, with little attention being paid to the…

Constructed-response (CR) questions are a mainstay of introductory physics textbooks and exams. However, because of the time, cost, and scoring reliability constraints associated with this format, CR questions are being increasingly replaced by multiple-choice (MC) questions in formal exams. The integrated testlet (IT) is a recently developed…

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationships among intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, and academic achievement for the Indian immigrant adolescents in Canada in comparison to their counterparts in India. Descriptive discriminant analysis indicated that the Indian immigrant adolescents in Canada had higher intrinsic…

TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) is an international assessment of mathematics and science at the fourth and eighth grades that has been conducted every four years since 1995, with the most recent assessment in 2011. PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) is an international assessment of reading…

A battery of reading-related and reading measures was used to select samples of good (N = 30) and poor readers (N = 19) in Grade 1. Parents of these children completed a questionnaire about current and preschool home literacy practices and socio-economic status (SES). The 2 groups were compared with t tests and in a discriminant analysis. The t…

Students need to be taught how to use the media effectively if they are to operate intelligently in a society that is highly media oriented. In order to deal with media, students must understand why media operate as they do and what the attendant consequences are. (BRR)

Large scale testing in English affects second-language students not only greatly but also differently than first-language learners. The research literature reports that confounding factors in such large-scale testing such as varying test formats may differentially affect the performance of students from diverse backgrounds. An investigation of…

A subset of a real data set from a national survey on alcohol use and driving in Canada (original sample of 6,457) is used to illustrate an ad hoc analysis with missing data on multiple response variables. A complete-case analysis initiates this strategy, determining variables that may be deleted without losing effects of interest. By such a…

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between self-determination and quality of life (QOL) of persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) living in four countries (Canada, United States, Belgium and France). Method: Participants were 182 adults with mild ID living in community settings (with families, living…

Employed a discriminant analysis with a number of instruments to determine their relative power in classifying hyperactive children. Results indicated that only nine of 27 measures used had the potential to discriminate hyperactive from normal children. Only three measures were needed in the discriminant equation for accurate classification.…

Compared 16 disruptive preadolescent boys with symptoms of attention deficit (AD) to 16 disruptive boys without attention deficit (DIS) and 16 controls (CO) using Stroop Color and Word Test (SCWT). Found AD group was significantly distinct (had lower score) in comparison to DIS and CO on color-word score. ADs showed more hesitations on color-word…

Discriminant analysis is applied to data from previous research dealing with assessing the particularities of cognitive development in young (four to nine years old) Montagnais Indians and French Canadians. The most important future contribution of discriminant analysis to intercultural research will be its ability to conceptualize group…

Describes a survey of 356 adult students enrolled in university-level courses at the Open Learning Institute which was conducted to assess the predictive validity of Tinto's theoretical model of student dropout. It was found that, overall, the Tinto model appears to be a useful framework for such investigations. (Author/LRW)

Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine which factors best predict parental use of single versus multiple types of violence. Methodology: The study uses data from a Quebec telephone survey conducted with a representative sample of 2,469 mothers of children aged 0-17 years. The interview covered topics such as mother's attitudes and…

Reviews a study of 117 students at the University of Saskatchewan which examined the relationship between high school computer experience and university achievement in introductory computer science. The pretests used are described, findings are analyzed, and student withdrawal patterns are discussed. (Author/LRW)