As reporting of effect sizes in evaluation studies has proliferated, researchers and consumers of research need tools for interpreting or benchmarking the magnitude of those effect sizes that are relevant to the intervention, target population, and outcome measure being considered. Similarly, researchers planning education studies with social and…

Several international large-scale assessments were conducted at the turn of the new century, and during the past two decades the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) completed seven cycles of assessment to facilitate practitioners' policy debates and governance. This study reviews PISA-related articles published in English and…

Publication of research, innovation, challenges and successes is of critical importance to the evolution of more effective distance education programming. Publication in peer reviewed journal format is the most prestigious and the most widespread form of dissemination in education and most other disciplines, thus the importance of understanding…

Proposes split model for index term distribution in document set that uses rank function for high frequency terms and size function for low frequency terms; the point of transition is determined either empirically or by rule. Distributions to describe index term exhaustivity and term co-occurrence are considered briefly. (36 references) (EJS)

This report provides a general overview of available courseware for computer assisted instruction by examining the distribution of these packages across grade level, hardware type, instructional mode, and subject areas, including art, business education, computer science, language arts, foreign language, mathematics, science, social studies,…

Discussion of a new method of index term dictionary compression in an inverted-file-oriented database highlights a technique of word coding, which generates short fixed-length codes obtained from the index terms themselves by analysis of monogram and bigram statistical distributions. Substantial savings in communication channel utilization are…

Global economic transformations have never been as dramatic as in the twentieth century. Most countries have experienced radical changes in the standards of income per capita, technology, fertility, mortality, income inequality and the extent of democracy in the course of the past century. It is the goal of many disciplines--economics, history,…

Derives the underlying structure of the Zipf distribution, with emphasis on its application to word frequencies in the inverted files of automatic bibliographic systems, and applies the Zipfian model to the National Library of Medicine's MEDLINE database. An appendix on the Zipfian mean and 12 references are included. (Author/JL)

This report provides an analysis of microcomputer software available for elementary and secondary level instruction in 1989 as compared to 1984. Data from the Resources in Computer Education (RICE) database are used to compare distribution of software programs by grade level; hardware manufacturer; application type (drill, tutorial, simulation,…

Two statistical measures are used to compare the Library of Congress and Dewey Decimal Classification systems by applying them to the library science portions of the two systems using a database drawn from MARC records. It is concluded that the measures characterize two different properties of dispersion. (Author/EM)

Survey of Ohio State University faculty members and administrators examines their attitudes and perceptions regarding need for, and potential use of, a computerized database to increase efficiency of graduate school administration, and to collect and generate data for academic departments' use in improving programs. Proposed database design is…

Examines how informetric characteristics of information retrieval (IR) system databases can be used to help system designers decide what type of file structures would provide the best performance. The development of appropriate models describing database contents is highlighted in this first part of a two-part study. (30 references) (LRW)

This second report on a two-part study on the application of informetrics to information retrieval (IR) system design used models of database contents in a factorial simulation study at the University of Western Ontario. The study explored whether different file structures were better suited for different informetric environments. (32 references)…