Data from Terman's "Genetic Studies of Genius" (1925-1959) relating to sample size, mean IQ, and variance of IQ scores were analyzed in terms of their conformation to the theoretically projected statistics derived from a consideration of the normal curve. (Author/RC)

This note suggests a solution to the problem of achieving randomization in experimental settings where units deemed eligible for treatment "trickle in," that is, appear at any time. The solution permits replication of the experiment in order to test for time-dependent effects. (Author/CTM)

A dialog between two fictional teachers provides some basic examples of how research that uses approved methodology may provide results that are significant statistically but not significant practically. (PGD)

The second half of a dialogue between two fictional teachers examines the significance of statistical significance in research and considers the factors affecting the extent to which research results provide important or useful information. (PGD)

Points out that one flaw in statistical foundations of much reading research is that researchers neglect to consider whether their findings could be replicated using a different sample of materials. Also shows that many topics in reading research do not quite fit the model for the null hypothesis. (TO)

Problems in making inferences from a sample to a population and from one cohort to other cohorts are discussed. It is concluded that in most cases a longitudinal design using repeated measures is preferable to an independent samples design. (Author)

Monte Carlo methods are used to explore the accuracy of a method for establishing confidence intervals for variance component estimates in generalizability studies. Previous research has shown that variance component estimation errors due to sampling are often larger than suspected. (Author/CM)

Some procedures for estimating internal consistency reliability may be superior mathematically to the more commonly used methods such as Coefficient Alpha. One problem is computational difficulty; the other is the possibility of overestimation due to capitalization on chance. (Author/CTM)

Risks of life on the street caused by inclement weather, harassment, and assault threaten the unsheltered homeless population. We address some challenges of enumerating the street homeless population by testing a novel capture-recapture (CR) estimation approach that models individuals' intermittent daytime visibility. We tested walking and…

An experiment is described which uses a real-world sample of lawn fertilizer in a simple exercise to illustrate problems associated with the sampling step of a chemical analysis. A mixed-particle fertilizer containing discrete particles of iron oxide (magnetite, Fe[subscript 3]O[subscript 4]) mixed with other particles provides an excellent…

A crucial question in any study is how representative the sample is of the population being studied at the time of the interview. This is of particular concern when the study is based on a follow-up of a sample of respondents initially interviewed for other purposes. This study evaluated the representativeness of a sample of elderly female…

A review of articles that report study results based on couple samples indicated response rates are rarely high enough for statistical inference. Four procedures that can be used to compensate for insufficient response rates (collecting information from nonparticipants, census comparisons, adjustment in analysis, and replication) are examined.…

Much of educational administration research suffers from lack of conformity between data analysis and research design, inattention to the test/retest stability of measurement instruments, and the use of statistics for nominal or interval data with ordinal data, random-sample statistics with nonrandom samples, and unnecessarily complex statistical…

A case study of a survey of new students made at a postsecondary vocational-technical school illustrates several sampling problems, including sample size, target population definition, determination of research purposes, costs, error tolerance, accuracy, and interpretation of research results for use by policymakers. (RW)