Research on assessing the cultural fairness of individual test items is reviewed, with emphasis on Birnbaum's three-parameter logistic model. As defined in this review, differential item characteristics are exhibited when examinees from one group have a lower probability of answering correctly than do examinees of equal ability from another group.…

This report presents 1980 census data on the geographic distribution of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. The 1980 census was the first one to identify the total Asian and Pacific Islander population and its subgroups. Information on the total Asian and Pacific Islander population is shown for the United States, regions,…

Four different procedures were used for estimating the proportion of persons who would be classified consistently as either passing both of two parallel tests or failing both. These four methods were applied at each of four different mastery level scores for each of three different length tests. Data were based on 50 replications of each procedure…

This evaluation handbook was written for school district personnel who may be either novices or experts in the use of educational research techniques. Tailored to categorically aided projects, the handbook describes techniques that will isolate specific activity effects as reflected by pupil achievement. Chapters are devoted to the construction of…

This training text is designed to introduce program evaluation concepts and terminology to beginning program evaluators for state-federal vocational rehabilitation programs. Taking a research approach, the text covers the principles underlying program evaluation, and is geared to give the reader a basic understanding of how these principles can be…

Project TALENT, a large scale, long range, longitudinal study, is designed primarily to provide insights into the characteristics and development of American adolescents. In order to compare trends in test results, a comprehensive battery of Psychological, educational, and personality measures were administered to participants in the 1960, 1970,…

This paper was intended to promote a deeper understanding of a statistical method called balancing developed by National Assessment of Educational Progress. Problems in estimating main effects when populations are disproportionate, balancing solutions to these problems, methods equivalent to balancing, interpretation of balanced results, and some…

"Other Nations, Other Peoples", a research project of the U. S. Office of Education, studied the degree of ethnocentrism present in elementary and secondary public school students. The research design was three-way, calling for stratified samples according to county, school and students. The purpose of the study was to determine how ethnocentrism…

Local district personnel are responsible for collecting evidence that categorically aided projects have an impact upon disadvantaged learners' behavior. The district personnel requested assistance in designing evaluation methods to meet their needs. In keeping with the State Education Department's policy of maximizing service to the field, this…

Compares the results of two survey designs administered to visitors of three South African nature reserves to ascertain changes in conservation awareness. Explains the method, data collection, questionnaire design, statistical tests, pretests, pilot studies, results, and conclusions of the study. Finds that no statistical differences between…

In studies involving matrix sampling on items, it is often the case that there are too few responses per individual to use latent trait item response models. A model is formulated wherein individual level variability appears as independent error within the cells of a cross classification of demographic variables. (JKS)

Discusses the evaluation of second and foreign language programs, focusing on whether such evaluations should be summative or formative; use outside experts or program staff; emphasize qualitative or quantitative data; and concentrate on the process or the product. An annotated bibliography discusses six important works in the field. (78…

Statistically based risk assessment devices are widely used in criminal justice settings. Their promise remains largely unfulfilled, however, because assumptions and premises requisite to their development and application are routinely ignored and/or violated. This article provides a brief review of the most salient of these assumptions and…

The Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) of the National Center for Education Statistics provides periodic, timely data on public and private elementary and secondary schools in the United States. Data collected include: school and teacher characteristics; school operations, programs, and policies; teacher demand and supply; and the opinions of…

This paper outlines procedures used to derive variables from data in the National Survey of Postsecondary Faculty; these variables were then used to create measures not expressly included as items in that survey. The derived variables were used to examine faculty satisfaction in two contexts: first, the complexity of satisfaction, and second, the…