The New Mexico Public Education Department developed the Kindergarten Observation Tool (KOT) as a multidimensional observational measure of students' knowledge and skills at kindergarten entry. The primary purpose of the KOT is to inform instruction, so that kindergarten teachers can use the information about their students' knowledge and skills…

This study investigates the psychometric properties of the Romanian version of the Dyadic Coping Inventory with data from 510 married couples. The results confirm the theoretical factorial structure of the Dyadic Coping Inventory for both partners, indicating convergent validity, discriminate validity, and measurement invariance (across genders…

This report describes statistical analyses performed on data collected in the Spring of 2015 from the pilot study of proposed revised and new items in the IDEA Student Ratings of Instruction (SRI) system. Described are the methods employed, results obtained, and decisions made in selecting items for the updated instruments. The procedures occurred…

This report describes the processes undertaken to revise the IDEA Student Ratings of Instruction (SRI) system. The previous revision occurred in 1999, as described in IDEA Technical Report No. 11, "Revising the IDEA System for Obtaining Student Ratings of Instructors and Courses" (Hoyt, Chen, Pallett, & Gross, 1999). The procedures…

The current study describes the development and construct validation of a situational judgment test for assessing the strategic knowledge of classroom management in elementary schools. Classroom scenarios and accompanying courses of action were constructed, of which 17 experts confirmed the content validity. A pilot study and a cross-validation…

The New York City Department of Education's (DOE) annual survey of parents, students, and teachers is the largest of its kind in the United States. The DOE relies on the survey to identify schools' strengths and to target areas for improvement. School Survey scores, along with attendance, are also the only non-academic indicators used in the DOE's…

This study examined the scores on a state standards-based Grade 5 Science assessment obtained by a group of students without learning disabilities who took the standard form of the test and by three groups of students with learning disabilities: one taking the standard form of the test without accommodations or modifications, a second taking the…

As part of Phase 3 of the Universal Preschool Child Outcomes Study (UPCOS-3), Mathematica Policy Research worked with the First 5 LA Children and Families Commission and Los Angeles Universal Preschool (LAUP) to conduct a descriptive study of the characteristics of classrooms in LAUP programs during winter 2010. This study has a particular focus…

Real world data often fail to meet the underlying assumption of population normality. The Rank Transformation (RT) procedure has been recommended as an alternative to the parametric factorial analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The purpose of this study was to compare the Type I error and power properties of the RT ANCOVA to the parametric procedures…

This study investigated the relationship between the dimensionality of behaviorally anchored scales during construction and during their use. It was hypothesized that as the agreement among raters in assigning behaviors to dimensions increased, there would be an increase in the stability of the structure of the dimensions and in their independence…

The central objective of factor analysis is to explain the greatest amount of variance in a data set with the smallest number of factors. Higher-order analysis is an invaluable tool that offers the benefit of parsimony provided by first-order analysis with the opportunity to make data-based generalizations beyond the first-order. Higher-order…

Scores on the four subtests of the old Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and the six subtests of the new edition (1978) were factor analyzed. Scores were derived from similar groups of applicants. Two-factors, verbal-general information and science-quantitative, known from previous factorial studies of the old MCAT, emerged again. Five of the…

To provide diagnostic feedback for college faculty, a faculty evaluation rating scale was developed and used by college students. The instrument consisted of 2 global items--rate the instructor, rate the course; 5 questions on general teaching characteristic--presentation, enthusiasm, discussion, organization, and personal attention; and 42 low…

Analysis of 1980 state-level data found that white suicide rates were associated with variables indicating social instability, while American Indian suicide rates were negatively related to wealth and urbanization. Both white and Indian homicide rates were related to social instability; Indian rates were also negatively related to unemployment.…

In an earlier study, I. Newman and D. Waechter (1999) investigated graduate education students' perceptions and attitudes toward cheating in scientific research. A questionnaire was developed that was based on reactions and concerns related to cheating behavior seen in a public television video about faking scientific data. This study examined the…