It is common for social scientists to use formal quantitative methods to compare ecological units such as towns, schools, or nations. In many cases, the size of these units in terms of the number of individuals subsumed in each differs substantially. When the variables in question are counts, there is generally some attempt to neutralize…

This document presents the technical appendices that accompany the full report, "Special Education Finance in California." The appendices include: (1) Problems with AB 602 and Other State Funding Programs for Special Education; (2) Additional Figures for Analysis of Distribution of Students with Disabilities; (3) Using Supplemental and…

In large-scale assessments, such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), plausible values based on Multiple Imputations (MI) have been used to estimate population characteristics for latent constructs under complex sample designs. Mislevy (1991) derived a closed-form analytic solution for a fixed-effect model in creating…

In an effort to better understand aggregate patterns in the way elementary school students are assigned to classes, we conduct a careful analysis of observed classroom assignment outcomes in the 5th grade in North Carolina elementary schools. First, we model the probability that a pair of students are classmates as a function of the…

This article presents the authors' rejoinder to commentaries on linear equating and the NEAT design. The authors appreciate the insightful work of the commentary writers. Each has made a number of interesting points, many of which the authors had not considered at all. Before responding to some of those points, the authors reiterate what they see…

In the first of two experiments, we demonstrate the spread of a novel form of tool use across 20 "cultural generations" of child-to-child transmission. An experimentally seeded technique spread with 100% fidelity along twice as many "generations" as has been investigated in recent exploratory "diffusion" experiments of this type. This contrasted…

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a new method for fitting item response theory models with the latent population distribution estimated from the data using splines. A spline-based density estimation system provides a flexible alternative to existing procedures that use a normal distribution, or a different functional form, for the…

The power of the t, expected normal scores, Mann-Whitney U, Tukey, a modified Mann-Whitney U, and an adaptive procedure were investigated when sampling from population models empirically developed from test score distributions. The models used were selected members of the beta family. This investigation was unique in that not only did the means of…

This article deals with the problems of modeling the population densities of cities. Two types of models, the quadratic gamma and the equilibrium, are discussed and compared. (Author/MK)

A mathematical expression of the classic zone and sector phenomena in the distribution of residential neighborhood characteristics in urban areas is developed. (Author/JB)

Population models, both flat and vertical, make excellent group activities. Methods of instruction are detailed with examples. Models may be used to make transformations to demographic base maps upon which other population characteristics may be shown. (NH)

Explanations for growth beyond central city borders are examined. Presented is a general overview of the confrontation between conventional and critical urban theory. (Author/RM)

The primary purpose of this research is to examine the impact of estimation methods, actual latent trait distributions, and item pool characteristics on the performance of a simulated computerized adaptive testing (CAT) system. In this study, three estimation procedures are compared for accuracy of estimation: maximum likelihood estimation (MLE),…