The results of five studies into the characteristics of wrong answers as a class of divergent behavior are presented. The evidence from these studies, when taken in combination, suggests that the tendency of researchers to ignore wrong answers has been a fundamental procedural error of broad scope and serious consequences. Instead of the straight…

This research investigated the use of the Rasch simple logistic model in obtaining test-free ability estimates. Raw-score ability estimates were influenced by the difficulty of the items used in measurement but Rasch ability estimates were relatively independent of the item difficulty. (Author/CTM)

The teacher who holds enlarged perspectives is regarded more highly than the teacher whose views tend to narrow perspectives. Since children will be influenced by their teacher's attitudes, an examination of the variables related to enlarged perspectives in teachers is pertinent to a broad education. This research looks at those variables among…

Statistical analyses supported two conclusions: (a) The Physiological and Emotional Security subscales of the HSS are highly saturated with psychopathological symptomatology; and (b) the remaining five HSS subscales measure dimensions of clients' psychosocial and vocational adjustment that are relatively independent of psychopathology. (Author)

Male school children (N=241), all aged 16 years, and 144 men facing redundancy completed the 60 item version of the General Health Qestionnaire. Data were analysed using unrotated first principal component analysis followed by oblique rotation. The unrotated first principal component accounted for much of the variance, particularly in the school…

Using data from the High School and Beyond, this article presents statistical procedures to estimate the effect of dropping out of high school on cognitive achievement test scores. Each sampled dropout is matched to a student remaining in the same school. Methods for addressing the possible omission of covariates are described. (BS)

This publication presents the reports from two studies, Math Online (MOL) and Writing Online (WOL), part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Technology-Based Assessment (TBA) project. Funded by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the Technology-Based Assessment project is intended to explore the use of new…

With the advent of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the context for NAEP participation is changing. Whereas in the past participation in NAEP has always been voluntary, participation is now mandatory for some grade and subjects among schools receiving Title I funds. While this will certainly raise school-level participation rates in the mandated…

Six hypotheses were tested in an attempt to demonstrate that textbook bias exists which is negative toward technical-vocational work modes. Results of the analysis of elementary reading textbooks used in Texas showed that bias does exist but the existence of corresponding attitudinal differences in students needs further investigation. (DS)

Article assesses the value of prescribing two commonly used tranquilizers in relieving students of examination anxiety. (Author/RK)

Describes the experimental methods used to verify two hypotheses concerning the variability of linguistic behavior at the social and individual levels, within a homogeneous community. Postulates correlations among data from the social/individual "external dimension" and the "internal dimension" which is based on structural properties such as…

A 1977 survey of retired United Auto Workers designed to measure retiree propensity to return to work found that work propensity is a generalized attitude and not job-specific. Measurement of associated variables indicated that most retirees held attitudes unfavorable to a return to work. (MF)

It is shown that using formulae for the estimation of sampling errors based on simple random sampling, when a design actually involves cluster sampling, can lead to serious underestimation of error. Jackknife and balanced repeated replication are recommended as techniques for dealing with this problem. (Author/CTM)

Thirty-five studies on the efficacy of special class versus regular class placement for mildly handicapped students were reviewed for the power of their statistical tests. Twenty-one studies had adequate power to detect a large effect size but the power to detect a medium effect size was no better than chance. (Author/DB)

This article reports the results of using a three-layer back propagation artificial neural network to predict item difficulty in a reading comprehension test. Three classes of variables were examined: text structure, propositional analysis, and cognitive demand. Results demonstrate that the networks can consistently predict item difficulty. (JL)