Single subject (SS) designs are popular in educational and psychological research. There exist several statistical techniques designed to analyze such data and to address the question of whether an intervention has the desired impact. Recently, researchers have suggested that generalized additive models (GAMs) might be useful for modeling…

Special educators are urged to use research findings to inform their instruction in order to improve student outcomes. However, it can be difficult to tell whether and how research findings apply to one's own students. In this article, we discuss how special educators can consider the samples and the sampling methods in studies to examine the…

Cluster randomized experiments are ubiquitous in modern education research. Although a variety of modeling approaches are used to analyze these data, perhaps the most common methodology is a normal mixed effects model where some effects, such as the treatment effect, are regarded as fixed, and others, such as the effect of group random assignment…

In education research, small samples are common because of financial limitations, logistical challenges, or exploratory studies. With small samples, statistical principles on which researchers rely do not hold, leading to trust issues with model estimates and possible replication issues when scaling up. Researchers are generally aware of such…

Classroom context and climate are inherently classroom-level (L2) constructs, but applied researchers sometimes--inappropriately--represent them by student-level (L1) responses in single-level models rather than more appropriate multilevel models. Here we focus on important conceptual issues (distinctions between climate and contextual variables;…

This Policy Research Brief proposes an organizational framework for understanding the characteristics of Postsecondary Education (PSE) programs for persons with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) and the relationship of those characteristics to outcomes. The adoption of such a taxonomy could increase understanding of the variety of…

This report is one of five submitted as products of a "Study Designed to Assist Planning of Research on Significant Instructional Features in Bilingual Education Programs." The reports are intended to assist the National Institute of Education (NIE) in its plans for a major new research study in bilingual education. The present report…

This study was an attempt to determine the nature of the pausing phenomena in oral reading, and whether these phenomena are possible overt features of the verbal processing entailed in reading orally, and also in reading silently, by relating them to the silent and oral reading comprehension abilities of the subjects. (Author)

Research design sampling models regarding educational research of within-grade influences on overall educational experiences are discussed and limitations of each model noted. (DEP)

The empirical validity of the Biglan model of academic disciplines is supported. Examples are provided to illustrate how the systematic use of this model could enhance the quality of research on university faculty members and the academic administration of colleges. (Author/MLW)

This article shows how the methods of survival analysis (also known as event history analysis) lend themselves to the study of the timing of educational events. Using examples from teacher attrition and student dropout research, survival methods are introduced for building statistical models of the risk of event occurrence over time. (Author/SLD)

The state of the art in observational studies is discussed, with emphasis on explanatory research--studies of program effectiveness in which an attempt is made to explain the reasons for the results as well as describing the results. In addition to the collection of data and presentation of statistical facts, the explanatory study involves the…

This symposium deals with recent issues in the development of the National Assessment model. General goals are outlined and the following topics are discussed: "Objectives and Exercises" (Jack C. Merwin); "Sampling" (A. Finkner); and "Data Analysis" (John Milholland). (CK) Aspect of National Assessment (NAEP) dealt…

This report presents the analytic plan for a study of demonstration Title I projects. The study is to be one of distributional equity: what kinds of instructional services are received by what kinds of students. It is mandated by the United States Congress and will provide the basic analysis for possible modifications in the Elementary and…

Quantitative educational research with ethnic minorities has a long history, characterized by assumptions that are still operative, such as the assumption that the white male is the standard against which other groups should be compared. It has also been assumed that assessment instruments are applicable across all groups, and that sources of…