This paper discusses how certain recent technical advances might be extended to examine proficiency tests which are conceptualized as representing a variety of skills with one or more items per skill. In contrast to previous analyses, errors in the item level are included. (Author/BW)

Compares the performance of learning disabled students on the WISC-R and the Tests of Cognitive Abilities from the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery. This study finds that learning disabled subjects performed more poorly on the Tests of Cognitive Abilities than on the WISC-R. (Author)

Hawkin's procedure for testing a sequence of observations for a shift in location could have applicability for assessing change within a single subject. Monte Carlo results suggest that Hawkins' procedure is robust with respect to moderate violations of its underlying assumptions of homogeneity of variance and normality. (Author/GDC)

Errors of misclassification and their effects on categorical data analysis are discussed. The chi-square test for equality of two proportions is examined in the context of errorful categorical data. The effects of such errors are illustrated. A correction procedure is developed and discussed. (Author/MH)

Evaluations involving nonrandom assignment to treatment or control groups are vulnerable to an accidental or intentional confounding of a selection effect with the treatment effect. Two techniques, discriminant analysis and base expectancy analysis, permit separate estimation of the selection and treatment effects in the final results. (Author/CTM)

While all subjects improved on personality factors measuring social precision, persistence, and control after a physical fitness program of jogging, calisthenics, and recreational activities, a longer and intensified period of regular exercise is necessary to cause a dramatic change in personality parameters.

Tests whether children's learnings in one of the social sciences, geography, are as hypothesized, hierarchically dependent; that is, whether learning of each in a series of central, analytic processes in one of the social sciences facilitates, through positive transfer, the learning of each succeeding higher-order capability in the field.…

Discusses the application of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov two-sample tests, as an alternative to the Chi-square test, for survey research problems in business education and includes a computer program written for the convenience of researchers. The two-sample test is recommended for differentiating independent distributions. (MF)

Presents the Lexical/Semantic Hypothesis, which proposes that early learning is more lexically oriented, and that early word combinations can be explained by more semantically oriented accounts than the Full Competence Hypothesis. The article also replaces the Grammatical Infinitive Hypothesis with the Modal Hypothesis. (32 references) (Author/CK)

Analyzes Hughes and Nelson's study of placement testing at Riverside Community College and offers an alternative method of evaluating placement systems using logistic regression. Reanalyzes data from an ASSET placement test validity study using logistic regression. (DMM)

Describes administration of the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) to three groups of United States Military Academy students in order to evaluate changes in student performance as a result of taking a student-success course (RS101). LASSI measures students' affective growth upon completion of the RS101 course and their growth in…

Surveys introductory business and economics statistics textbooks and finds that they differ over the best way to explain one-tailed hypothesis tests: the simple null-hypothesis approach or the composite null-hypothesis approach. Argues that the composite null-hypothesis approach contains methodological shortcomings that make it more difficult for…

Provides an introduction to structural equation modelling (SEM) for language research, including: general objectives of SEM applications relevant to language assessment; methodology and statistical assumptions about data that must be met; commonly-used SEM steps and concepts; application matters, with sample models; and recent critical discussions…

This article describes a SAS macro to assess model fit of structural equation models by employing a test of the model-implied vanishing tetrads. Use of this test has been limited in the past, in part due to the lack of software that fully automates the test in a user-friendly way. The current SAS macro provides a straightforward method for…

In this article, the history of linking is summarized, and current linking frameworks that have been proposed are considered. Key publications discussed include Flanagan (1951), Angoff (1971), Linn (1993), Mislevy (1992), and Feuer, Holland, Green, Bertenthal, and Hemphill (1999). The article further focuses on the concordance situation for…