With the publication of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fifth Edition", autism spectrum disorders are defined by two symptom clusters (social communication and restricted/repetitive behaviors) instead of the current three clusters. The current study examined the structure of the Baby and Infant Screen for…

Learning a more distributed representation of the input feature space is a powerful method to boost the performance of a given predictor. Often this is accomplished by partitioning the data into homogeneous groups by clustering so that separate models could be trained on each cluster. Intuitively each such predictor is a better representative of…

Although experts in gifted education widely promote cluster grouping gifted students, little empirical evidence is available to attest to its effectiveness. This study is an example of comparative action research in the form of a quantitative case study that focused on the mandated cluster grouping practices for gifted students in an urban…

Simulation and real data studies are used to investigate the value of modeling multiple-choice distractors on item response theory linking. Using the characteristic curve linking procedure for Bock's (1972) nominal response model presented by Kim and Hanson (2002), all-category linking (i.e., a linking based on all category characteristic curves…

A methodology developed as an alternative to conventional institutional classification structures, intended to reduce the limitations of those models, is described. Ways in which the methodology can be used for planning, administrative, and research purposes are discussed, as are the dangers in using "peer groups" for institutional…