Policymakers have grown increasingly interested in how experimental results may generalize to a larger population. However, recently developed propensity score-based methods are limited by small sample sizes, where the experimental study is generalized to a population that is at least 20 times larger. This is particularly problematic for methods…

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…

Reporting methods used in large-scale assessments such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) rely on latent regression models. To fit the latent regression model using the maximum likelihood estimation technique, multivariate integrals must be evaluated. In the computer program MGROUP used by the Educational Testing Service for…

This article considers various kinds of probability and non-probability samples in both experimental and survey studies. Throughout, how a sample is chosen is stressed. Size alone is not the determining consideration in sample selection. Good samples do not occur by accident; they are the result of a careful design. (Author/JAZ)

This report presents an investigation by the American College Testing Program (ACT) of an alternative design for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The proposed design greatly simplifies the data collection and analysis procedures needed to produce assessment results and has the potential to produce results that are more…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a survey of national trends in educational achievement, is attempting to expand its inclusion of students with disabilities or limitations that have previously caused them to be excluded from the assessment. The study described was a precursor to the 1996 changes in NAEP inclusion procedures.…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) currently tests seventeen-year-old students enrolled in public and private secondary schools, but it does not test "out-of-school" seventeen-year-olds who have either graduated or dropped out. Estimating that one of five seventeen-year-olds is out of school, the interpretability of…

Appraisal of a school's relative effectiveness is complicated by: (1) the need to control for input differences; (2) measurement error in input measures; and (3) small sample size within schools. This study compares the performance of two successive cohorts in 19 schools in a small midwestern city on the five Iowa Tests of Basic Skills using both…

The National Reporting System (NRS) established reporting requirements for the adult education program required by Title II of the Workforce Investment Act. The NRS defines the measures local programs must collect, the methodologies for collecting them, and state reporting requirements. This document presents the guidelines for conducting the NRS…

This paper provides an overview of common sampling methods (both the good and the bad) likely to be used in community college self-evaluations and presents the results from several simulated trials. The report begins by reviewing various survey techniques, discussing the negative and positive aspects of each method. The increased accuracy and…