Sample size determination in multilevel randomized trials (MRTs) and multilevel regression discontinuity designs (MRDDs) can be complicated due to multilevel structure, monetary restrictions, differing marginal costs per treatment and control units, and range restrictions in sample size at one or more levels. These issues have sparked a set of…

In order to promote the use of increasingly available large-scale assessment data in education and expand the scope of analytic capabilities among applied researchers, this study provides step-by-step guidance, and practical examples of syntax and data analysis using Maples. Concise overview and key unique aspects of large-scale assessment data…

The historical turn in social science has prompted scholars to engage with the work of historians on a large scale. Here, social scientists face two standard problems of selection bias: confirmation bias and convenience sampling. So far, the record of dealing with these problems has been poor, and little has been done to specify how social…

Forensic science practitioners compare visual evidence samples (e.g. fingerprints) and decide if they originate from the same person or different people (i.e. fingerprint 'matching'). These tasks are perceptually and cognitively complex--even practising professionals can make errors--and what limited research exists suggests that existing…

In this article, we explore the use of Facebook targeted advertisements for the collection of survey data. We illustrate the potential of survey sampling and recruitment on Facebook through the example of building a large employee--employer linked data set as part of The Shift Project. We describe the workflow process of targeting, creating, and…

The aim of this analysis of data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey is to compare labour market outcomes between individuals who have Vocational Education and Training (VET) qualifications only, VET and Higher Education (HE) qualifications and HE qualifications only, but who work in the same occupations. In…

Previous findings on the preconditions of teachers' collaboration are inconsistent. This might be related to the research methods used to assess the teachers' collaborative practice. Retrospective assessments by self-report on a relatively general level prevail. The validity of these self-reports is limited, however. In contrast, time-sampling…

These appendices accompany the full report, "National Household Education Surveys Program of 2019: Qualitative Study of Nonresponding Addresses. NCES 2022-043" (ED617187). The full report documents the methods and findings of a qualitative study of nonrespondent addresses to the 2019 administration of the National Household Education…

The American School District Panel (ASDP) is the newest addition to the RAND Corporation's American Educator Panels (AEP), which are designed to survey educators several times each year. RAND recruits ASDP members using probabilistic sampling methods, which allow researchers to weight survey results to generalize to the national population of…

Agent-based modeling holds great potential as an analytical tool. Agent-based models (ABMs) are, however, also vulnerable to critique, as they often employ stylized social worlds, with little connection to the actual environment in question. Given these concerns, there has been a recent call to more fully incorporate empirical data into ABMs. This…

When well-implemented, mediation analyses play a critical role in probing theories of action because their results help lay the ground work for the critical development of a treatment and the iterative advancement of theories that are foundational to a discipline. Despite strong interest in designs that incorporate mediation, few studies have…

In equating, smoothing techniques are frequently used to diminish sampling error. There are typically two types of smoothing: presmoothing and postsmoothing. For polynomial log-linear presmoothing, an optimum smoothing degree can be determined statistically based on the Akaike information criterion or Chi-square difference criterion. For…

In assembling testlets (i.e., test forms) with a pool of new and used item blocks, test security is one of the main issues of concern. Strict constraints are often imposed on repeated usage of the same item blocks. Nevertheless, for an assessment administering multiple testlets, a goal is to select as large a sample of testlets as possible. In…

The Gulf Cooperation Council is a regional cooperation of six Middle Eastern countries--Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman. A common feature of these countries is the existence of many group quarters, usually called labor camps, a term used to refer to housing accommodations for unskilled migrants where…

Best practices in mail survey design advise personalizing correspondence, but most research predates the use of address-based sampling (ABS) in which a householder's name either cannot be matched to an address or may be matched incorrectly. Further, recent evidence casts doubt on the effectiveness of personalization. The current study examines the…