The potential of replacing petroleum fuels with renewable biofuels has drawn significant public interest. Many states have imposed biodiesel mandates or incentives to use commercial biodiesel blends. We present an inquiry-driven experiment where students are given the tasks to gather samples, develop analytical methods using various instrumental…

Statistics and probability have become an integral part of mathematics education. Therefore it is important to understand whether curricular materials adequately represent statistical ideas. The "Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education" (GAISE) report (Franklin, Kader, Mewborn, Moreno, Peck, Perry, & Scheaffer, 2007),…

This dissertation was situated in the crossroads of educational data mining (EDM), educational digital libraries (such as the National Science Digital Library; http://nsdl.org), and examination of teacher behaviors while creating online learning resources in an end-user authoring system, the Instructional Architect (IA; http://ia.usu.edu). The…

Background: The assessment of adequate upper oesophageal sphincter (UOS) opening during swallowing is an integral component of dysphagia evaluation. Aims: To ascertain speech and language therapists' (SLTs) satisfaction with current methods for assessing UOS function in people with dysphagia and to identify challenges encountered by SLTs with UOS…

Student evaluation of teaching (SET) is now commonplace in many universities internationally. While much effort has been devoted to examining the statistical validity of SET instruments, there has been limited examination of the methodological and consequential validity (together referred to as "utility") of the ways in which SET data…

We are delighted to reflect on the 10 papers highlighted in this important special issue of "Early Childhood Research Quarterly" devoted to recent secondary data analyses of the FACES and EHSREP datasets. First, we provide some background on Head Start research and give an overview of the large-scale Head Start and Early Head Start…

This study reports on the process of developing a test to assess students' reading comprehension of scientific materials and on the statistical results of the verification study. A combination of classic test theory and item response theory approaches was used to analyze the assessment data from a verification study. Data analysis indicates the…

The critical power (CP) concept has received renewed attention and excitement in the academic community. The CP concept was originally conceived as a model derived from a series of exhaustive, constant-load, exercise bouts. All-out exercise testing has made quantification of the parameters for the two-component model easier to arrive at, which may…

This study aims to identify changes in adolescents' lives and in the relationships within the family when a family member has a dementia. Grandchildren living in Barcelona, Spain, participated in the study (N = 145). The data, based on both quantitative and qualitative information, showed that if the grandparent moved into the grandchildren's…

The progression of the taxonomic organization of life from Linnaeus's original two kingdoms to the traditional five-kingdom system to today's widely accepted three-domain system is explored in a group-learning activity. Working with a set of organisms, students organize them into each system. Discussion after each step focuses on viewing…

The term "data snooping" refers to the practice of choosing which statistical analyses to apply to a set of data after having first looked at those data. Data snooping contradicts a fundamental precept of applied statistics, that the scheme of analysis is to be planned in advance. In this column, the authors shall elucidate the…

This study explored the impact of partial credit scoring of one type of innovative items (multiple-response items) in a computerized adaptive version of a large-scale licensure pretest and operational test settings. The impacts of partial credit scoring on the estimation of the ability parameters and classification decisions in operational test…

Racial/ethnic diversity has become an increasingly important variable in the social sciences. Research from multiple disciplines consistently demonstrates the tremendous impact of ethnic diversity on individuals and organizations. Investigators use a variety of measures, and their choices can affect the conclusions that can be drawn and limit the…

This exploratory study was designed to identify the factors predictive of participation in postsecondary education for high school leavers with autism. A secondary data analysis of the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2 (NLTS2) data was performed for this study. Potential predictors of participation in postsecondary education were assessed…

This research provides the first review of publicly available assessment information found on Association of Research Libraries (ARL) members' websites. After providing an overarching review of benchmarking assessment data, and of professionally recommended assessment models, this paper examines if libraries contextualized their assessment…