The primary goal of welfare reform is to move recipients from welfare to work. Several factors influence the employment of welfare recipients. The purpose of this content analysis is to offer a comprehensive understanding of employment characteristics and important personal, family, and employment characteristics that either promote or deter…

This paper is based on guidelines developed in 1989 for training workshops for state and local educators to demonstrate the processes by which performance assessments could be created, validated, and used in statewide assessment programs. These guidelines are based on work with the National Assessment of Educational Progress and several statewide…

The serious problems associated with the use of stepwise methods are well documented. Various authors have leveled scathing criticisms against the use of stepwise techniques, yet it is not uncommon to find these methods continually employed in educational and psychological research. The three main problems with stepwise techniques are: (1)…

The research on response facilitation factors in mail surveys is reviewed, and background is developed to enable the comparison of results obtained by two analytic approaches, a descriptive analysis and a meta-analysis, using the same set of studies. Specific criteria for sample and methodology were applied to studies extracted from four CD-ROM…

Conventional statistical significance tests do not inform the researcher regarding the likelihood that results will replicate. One strategy for evaluating result replication is to use a "bootstrap" resampling of a study's data so that the stability of results across numerous configurations of the subjects can be explored. This paper…

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) conducts a variety of surveys on elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education. Recently an Integrated Sampling Team has been formed to explore the possible gains from a greater integration of these surveys and from new technology. The team will investigate the feasibility and desirability…

A study assessed the selection techniques used to secure focus group respondents at one site as part of a larger study to determine what viewers learned from the 1992 Presidential Debates. A two-stage random sampling technique was developed to select focus group respondents from the 224,041 registered voters in Syracuse, New York. The random…

This report contains the results of an evaluation of coverage issues regarding the 1994 Federal Libraries and Information Centers Survey. The objectives of this evaluation were to determine the accuracy and completeness of the final survey frame and to analyze the criteria used to classify federal library facilities as in-scope and out-of-scope.…

The meta-analytic techniques of G. V. Glass (1976) and J. E. Hunter and F. L. Schmidt (1977) were compared through their application to three meta-analytic studies from education literature. The following hypotheses were explored: (1) the overall mean effect size would be larger in a Hunter-Schmidt meta-analysis (HSMA) than in a Glass…

Survey data concerning teacher education program graduates were used to demonstrate the advantages of a stratified random sampling approach, with followup, relative to a one-shot mailing to an entire population. Sampling issues involved in such an approach are addressed, particularly with regard to quantifying the effects of nonresponse on the…

Item analysis procedures appropriate for domain-referenced classroom testing are described. A conceptual framework within which item statistics can be considered and promising statistics in light of this framework are presented. The sampling fluctuations of the more promising item statistics for sample sizes comparable to the typical classroom…

A research study evaluated the possible sex differences between males and females on job outcome importance as a function of occupational level. (RK)

Uses a printed sheet of paper to represent a plant population in a given area. Quadrat sampling is simulated by dropping a square coverslip on the sheet and recording the symbols under the coverslip. Line-transect method is simulated by having a student randomly adjust the sheet under a string. (GS)

Differences in teaching styles have conventionally been described in terms of ill-defined dichotomies. The aim of the present study was to provide a more adequate representation of teaching practices by creating a typology based on the self-reported strategies of primary school teachers. (Editor)

The attainments, attitudes, personality characteristics and friendship relations of three successive year groups of children (n254, 252 and 234) were assessed towards the end of their first term in secondary school. (Editor/RK)