Students may need explicit training in informal statistical reasoning in order to design experiments or use formal statistical tests effectively. By using scientific scandals and media misinterpretation, we can explore the need for good experimental design in an informal way. This article describes the use of a paper that reviews the measles mumps…

In several subdomains of the social, behavioral, health, and human sciences, research questions are increasingly answered through mixed methods studies, combining qualitative and quantitative evidence and research elements. Accordingly, the importance of including those primary mixed methods research articles in systematic reviews grows. It is…

Confidence intervals (CIs) and effect sizes are essential to encourage meta-analytic thinking and to accumulate research findings. CIs provide a range of plausible values for population parameters with a degree of confidence that the parameter is in that particular interval. CIs also give information about how precise the estimates are. Comparison…

A common problem in the behavioral sciences is to determine if a set of observed variables can be more parsimoniously represented by a smaller set of derived variables. To address this problem, the performance of five methods for determining the number of components to retain (Horn's parallel analysis, Velicer's Minimum Average Partial (MAP),…

Demonstrates a statistically valid method allowing students to explore randomization. Described are two examples: counting techniques for a small set of data and simulation for a large sample. (YP)

Too few researchers understand what statistical significance testing does and does not do, and consequently their results are misinterpreted. This Digest explains the concept of statistical significance testing and discusses the meaning of probabilities, the concept of statistical significance, arguments against significance testing,…

A thorough understanding of the uses and applications of statistical techniques is integral in gaining support for library funding or new initiatives. This resource is designed to help practitioners develop and manipulate descriptive statistical information in evaluating library services, tracking and controlling limited resources, and analyzing…

In the late 1970s, the Department of Defense requested that the reference population for the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) be changed and updated to reflect the current youth population. Analyses of new data collected in 1980 indicated that speeded subtest scores of the new sample were atypically low and that the sample might…

This brief report summarizes the results of a survey of professors of educational administration in the southern region of the United States, which sought to determine whether preparation programs were democratically administered. The survey included some demographic questions, 12 questions that asked respondents to rank preparation programs…

In 1982, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) proposed to implement a new, complex design for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The major features of this design are described in "A New Design for a New Era" (Messick, Beaton, and Lord, 1983). The purpose of this document is to describe the actual implementation of…

This document is the users' guide for Version 3.1 of the Public-Use data tapes compiled by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 1983-84. The Public-Use tapes are produced to allow outside researchers access to the NAEP data. The tapes accompanying this guide contain data assessing student achievement in reading and writing at…

The findings of the Cost, Quality, and Child Outcomes (CQO) study in Child Care Centers, the largest and most visible child care research conducted in the 1990s, were widely publicized and used to promote increased spending on initiatives to improve child care quality, the redesign of subsidy systems to provide quality incentives, more stringent…

Utilizes 19th-century census figures to reveal a more accurate and richer picture of womens' participation in the frontier work environment. Although the occupational classifications accurately reflected the rise of an industrial economy, they ignored womens' entrepreneurial rural efforts. Presents statistical data to rectify this situation. (MJP)

This document is the users' guide for Version 1.0 of the Public-Use data tapes compiled by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 1985-86. The Public-Use tapes are produced to allow outside researchers access to the NAEP data. The tapes accompanying this guide, one for grade 3/age 9, one for grade 7/age 13, and one for grade…