A frame of reference for studying culture in middle schools was developed. Items for the Middle School Description Survey (MSDS), which was designed to test elements of the ideal middle school culture, were created based on middle school advocacy literature. The items were conceptually categorized according to E. H. Schein's (1985) cultural…

An exploratory study focused on usage patterns of television remote control devices (RCDs), examining how and why individuals use television RCDs to "graze." The study identified the gratifications obtained from RCD use and evaluated their relative importance in accounting for variations in RCD use. Subjects were 455 undergraduates in…

In the past several years, numerous educational climate instruments and questionnaires have been developed. One such instrument is the Charles F. Kettering (CFK) School Climate Profile, a popular measure of school climate that is widely used to gather data for administrative planning and curriculum revision. The instrument is patterned on the…

The kinds of life events that may affect cognitive development were explored for 777 students, mostly freshmen, enrolled in introductory social science courses at Western Washington University Bellingham (Washington). Cognitive functioning was assessed using the Measure of Epistemological Reflection (MER) of M. B. Taylor (1983). Students also…

This study examined efficacy of different story collection procedures with normally developing (N=10) and language disordered (N=6) preschool children. Factor analyses probed such possible interfering factors as home vs. school environments, familiarity of the story requester, coaxing cues, stimulus structure, and presence of such props as dolls…

Several multivariate statistical methodologies have been proposed to ensure objective and quantitative evaluation of the multitrait-multimethod matrix. The paper examines the performance of confirmatory factor analysis and covariance component models. It is shown, both empirically and formally, that confirmatory factor analysis is not a reliable…

A component analytic method for analyzing multivariate longitudinal data is presented that does not make strong assumptions about the structure of the data. Central to the method are the facts that components are derived as linear composites of the observed or manifest variables and that the components must provide an adequate representation of…

Six editions of Scholastic Aptitude Test-Mathematical (SAT-M) were factor analyzed using confirmatory and exploratory methods. Confirmatory factor analyses (using the LISREL VI program) were conducted on correlation matrices among item parcels--sums of scores on a small subset of items. Item parcels were constructed to yield correlation matrices…

The purpose of the study was to investigate the construct validity of the Jewish Employment and Vocational Service (JEVS) work samples. The specific objectives were: (1) to investigate the factor structure of the JEVS work samples; (2) to determine which work samples were good measures of general ability; and (3) to identify the work samples that…

Data from a 1984 study undertaken to validate 15 teacher competencies for Connecticut's Beginning Teacher Support Program were reanalyzed to determine whether the competencies were applicable to all teachers or were specific to grade levels or subject areas. The original study examined 1733 responses to a survey that asked teachers and…

Factor analysis is the traditional method for studying the dimensionality of test data. However, under common conditions, the factor analysis of tetrachoric correlations does not recover the underlying structure of dichotomous data. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the factor analyses of tetrachoric correlations is unlikely to…

By analyzing the lexicology of natural language (English or other languages as they are commonly spoken or written), as compared to computer languages, this study explored the extent to which syntactic and semantic levels of linguistic analysis can be implemented and effectively used on microcomputers. In Phase I of the study, the Apple IIe with…

Teacher and administrator responses to the Connecticut School Interview, conducted as part of the Spencerport (New York) More Effective Schools/Teaching Project, indicate that there are a number of correlates which can be considered areas of strength, and that steady improvement has occurred in installing correlates in each building and in…

This report for researchers in rural sociology develops a conceptual and analytic framework for evaluating policies or programs through interrelated models. Three models--structural analysis, control programming, and simulation--allow researchers to assess policy/program impact, determine why expected impacts did or did not occur, and modify…

The purpose of this investigation was to identify item factors that may contribute to differential item functioning (DIF) for black examinees on Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) analogy items. Initially, items were classified according to several possible explanatory factors. Preliminary analyses identified several factors that seemed to affect DIF…