J. Barnette and J. McLean (1996) proposed a method of controlling Type I error in pairwise multiple comparisons after a significant omnibus F test. This procedure, called Alpha-Max, is based on a sequential cumulative probability accounting procedure in line with Bonferroni inequality. A missing element in the discussion of Alpha-Max was the…

The Mantel Haenszel (MH; 1959) approach of Holland and Thayer (1988) is a well-established method for assessing differential item functioning (DIF). The formula for the variance of the MH DIF statistic is based on work by Phillips and Holland (1987) and Robins, Breslow, and Greenland (1986). Recent simulation studies showed that the MH variances…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of sample size on the power of five selected fit indices through a Monte Carlo simulation. Two models (a reduced and a complete model) and 6 sample sizes (20, 50, 100, 200, 500, and 1,000) were used to investigate the effect on the power of fit indices as the sample size was varied. The…

This paper presents results from a comparison of the multiple regression (MR) approach to examining faculty salary equity (with clusters for the various disciplines) and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) for the same problem. The comparison was done in two steps. First, a practical example of applying both techniques, using empirical data, is…

Test security has often been a problem in computerized adaptive testing (CAT) because the traditional wisdom of item selection overly exposes high discrimination items. The a-stratified (STR) design advocated by H. Chang and his collaborators, which uses items of less discrimination in earlier stages of testing, has been shown to be very…

In the a-stratified method, a popular and efficient item exposure control strategy proposed by H. Chang (H. Chang and Z. Ying, 1999; K. Hau and H. Chang, 2001) for computerized adaptive testing (CAT), the item pool and item selection process has usually been divided into four strata and the corresponding four stages. In a series of simulation…

The purpose of this study was to examine the potential impact of selected methodological factors on the validity of conclusions from reliability generalization (RG) studies. The study focused on four factors; (1) missing data in the primary studies; (2) transformation of sample reliability estimates; (3) use of sample weights for estimating mean…

This paper explores political engagement in an increasingly difficult and troubled world by focusing on how U.S. college students participate in the largest simulation of the United Nations (UN) organization in the United States. The purpose of the paper is to explore what is done in the National Model UN (NMUN) program, its impact on the lives…

In this paper, six statistical tests of stochastic equality are compared with respect to Type I error and power through a Monte Carlo simulation. In the simulation, the skewness and kurtosis levels and the extent of variance heterogeneity of the two parent distributions were varied across a wide range. The sample sizes applied were either small or…

A study was conducted to investigate whether augmenting the calibration of items using computerized adaptive test (CAT) data matrices produced estimates that were unbiased and improved the stability of existing item parameter estimates. Item parameter estimates from four pools of items constructed for operational use were used in the study to…

Analyses of data from operational course placement systems are subject to the effects of truncation; students with low placement test scores may enroll in a remedial course, rather than a standard-level course, and therefore will not have outcome data from the standard course. In "soft" truncation, some (but not all) students who score…

The robustness of the polytomous Item Response Theory (IRT) model to violations of the unidimensionality assumption was studied. A secondary purpose was to provide guidelines to practitioners to help in deciding whether to use an IRT model to analyze their data. In a simulation study, the unidimensionality assumption was deliberately violated by…

A study was conducted to extend the sequential probability ratio testing (SPRT) procedure with the polytomous model under some practical constraints in computerized classification testing (CCT), such as methods to control item exposure rate, and to study the effects of other variables, including item information algorithms, test difficulties, item…

A training game provides for active participation in training using a gaming apparatus specifically designed for the achievement of a training objective. The most valuable characteristic of this kind of teaching device is the scope afforded for independent progress. (DS)