Four discrimination indices were compared, using score distributions which were normal, bimodal, and negatively skewed. The score distributions were systematically varied to represent the common circumstances of a military training situation using criterion-referenced mastery tests. Three 20-item tests were administered to 110 simulated subjects.…

Focusing on school staffing ratios for 1988-89, this report is a part of the Educational Research Service (ERS) report, "National Survey of Salaries and Wages in Public Schools, 1988-89." Included in this report are pupil-staff and teacher-staff ratios for individual positions and aggregate categories of professional personnel in 1,094 public…

This is a needs assessment of educationally disadvantaged students in Seattle, Washington for 1976-77. The report includes data on the following: (1) the distribution of low achievers by grade, sex, ethnic group, and school administrative area; (2) the distribution of achievement test scores of low achievers by subject, grade, and administrative…

The advantages that computer adaptive testing offers over linear tests have been well documented. The Computer Adaptive Test (CAT) design is more efficient than the Linear test design as fewer items are needed to estimate an examinee's proficiency to a desired level of precision. In the ideal situation, a CAT will result in examinees answering…

A popular method of analyzing test items for differential item functioning (DIF) is to compute a statistic that conditions samples of examinees from different populations on an estimate of ability. This conditioning or matching by ability is intended to produce an appropriate statistic that is sensitive to true differences in item functioning,…

This report provides data on withdrawal and success rates and grades earned in fall 1993 at the five campuses of Pima Community College (PCC), in Arizona. First, information is presented on the following areas: (1) successes and withdrawals by campus and district-wide, indicating that the Community campus showed the highest percentage of successes…

This paper argues that the standard "When it is expected that a test will be used to make norm-referenced assessments of groups rather than individuals, normative data based on appropriate group statistics should be provided," which was considered secondary in the 1985 "Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing" and…

Using the Internet to administer homework allows us to determine if students change their homework habits during a semester and if this change results in an improvement in grades.

This codebook for a machine-readable data file contains the frequencies for the values of variables for cases that are the individual activities in the Surroundings module of the BSCS Human Sciences Program. Students rated each activity on a six-item, Likert-type scale and responded to open-ended questions about the activity. Surroundings was one…

Designed to determine how children acquire beliefs about institutional roles and authority associated with them, this study focused on schools and the teacher's role. Students from France and Scotland aged between 7 and 11 years with contrasting socioeconomic backgrounds were interviewed, and class and national differences in beliefs were found.…

Describes a class experiment where students search a hypothetical job market for jobs paying wages in a known range but with an unknown wage distribution. The experiment is divided into three "trials", each one introducing different variables (unemployment insurance, search costs, and recession). Includes experiment instructions and a…

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)

Variability stands in the heart of statistics theory and practice. Concepts and judgments involved in comparing groups have been found to be a productive vehicle for motivating learners to reason statistically and are critical for building the intuitive foundation for inferential reasoning. The focus in this paper is on the emergence of beginners'…

In 1990, a study was conducted at Fullerton College (FC), a large suburban community college in Southern California, to determine if the use of classroom research by part-time faculty would stimulate greater involvement in learning and increase the course completion rate of adult learners in evening classes. A group of 16 part-time faculty…

This paper examines how various equating methods are affected by: (1) sampling error; (2) sample characteristics; and (3) characteristics of anchor test items. It reviews empirical studies that investigated the invariance of equating transformations, and it discusses empirical and simulation studies that focus on how the properties of anchor tests…