This paper presents abstracts of 80 individual papers and panel discussions that deal with journalism, popular culture, mass media, "science" in public discourse, the social construction of communication technologies, factorial analysis as a research tool, and other issues in communication. Almost all of the abstracts in the paper are…

This paper presents a methodology for developing a framework that can help decision makers distinguish intensity of needs and regional funding differences within a state. A cluster analysis was used to distinguish need in Georgia's 159 counties. Four clusters that identified the distribution of goods or services to those in need were identified:…

This report documents the construct validity and reliability of the Professional Development Inventory (PDI), an assessment center sponsored by the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP). The assessment center provides a means for assessing participants in situations simulating those confronted by principals on the job. The…

This study sought to determine whether the dimensions underlying a comprehensive set of 15 work-relevant abilities were similar to the Data/Ideas and Things/People Work Task Dimensions (D. J. Prediger, 1996) underlying J. L. Holland's (1997) hexagonal model of interest and occupational types. The work task dimensions and a general ability…

A large government agency had been experiencing a variety of changes. The new head of the agency approached communication researchers about doing analyses of the effectiveness of communication in the agency. The researchers conducted two studies: a qualitative one to identify organizational and organizational communication themes, and a…

Early intervention has shifted in focus to family centered assessment and treatment. The Comprehensive Evaluation of Family Functioning was developed to meet the need for accurate family assessment, but limited psychometric information on the measure is available. The present research investigated the psychometric properties of the CEFF with a…

Two analyses of variance (ANOVA) models for item scores are compared. The first is an items by subject random effect ANOVA. The second is a mixed effects ANOVA with items fixed and subjects random. Comparisons regarding reliability, Cronbach's alpha coefficient, psychometric inference, and inter-item covariance structure are made between the…

Selected methods for evaluating the stability of research results empirically are described, especially with regard to multivariate analysis. It is critically important to evaluate the influences of sampling error on obtained results; statistical significance testing does not inform judgment regarding the probable replicability or the sampling…

This paper explores a logistic regression procedure for estimating item parameters in the Rasch model and testing the hypothesis of item parameter invariance across several groups/populations. Rather than using item responses directly, the procedure relies on "pseudo-paired comparisons" (PC) statistics defined over all possible pairs of…

In 1980, the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) revised the instruments used to assess basic skills attainment in mathematics and reading of all students in grades 4, 7, and 10. The research summarized in this paper examined the factor structures of the 1979 and 1980 versions of the Grade 10 MEAP mathematics test. These two versions…

The relationship between selected subtests from the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) and corresponding subtests administered as computerized adaptive tests (CAT) was investigated using a sample of Marine recruits. Results showed that the CAT subtest scores correlated as well with initial ASVAB scores as did ASVAB retest scores,…

In the present study, the Vocational Preference Inventory scores for a group of black students and white students were factor analyzed and the black structure was rotated to correspond to the white structure. The correspondence between the variables for black and white students was found to be very similar. (Author)

Comrey Personality Scales (1970) were administered to 179 New Zealand university and teachers' college students. Factor analysis of the data confirmed that the basic structure of the scales was almost identical with that found in the American normative sample. (Author/RC)

This report concerns an attempt by an invited outside agent to clarify--as opposed to modify--the attitudes and opinions of teachers in a high school with regard to issues in education and drug use. (Author)

The factor-referenced kits developed by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) are assessed. With support from the National Science Foundation, the researcher surveyed the total range of research done over the past 65 years on the identification of cognitive abilities, principally through factor analysis. From a corpus of an estimated 2,000 data…