Intended as a supplement to the National Testing Service (NTS) project proposal of September 12, 1978, this report describes the status (as of November 15, 1978) of the evaluation design and the field implementation plan used for the national evaluation study of Head Start Educational Services and the Basic Educational Skills demonstration…

Research on the Rasch model of test and item analysis was applied to tests constructed from item banks for reading and mathematics with respect to five practical problems for scaling items and equating test forms. The questions were: (1) Does the Rasch model yield the same scale value regardless of the student sample? (2) How many students are…

Formulas are presented for decision reliability and for classification validity for mastery/nonmastery decisions based on criterion referenced tests. Two item parameters are used: the probability of a master answering an item correctly, and the probability of a nonmaster answering an item incorrectly. The theory explores the relationships of…

A fictitious community of 583 households was set up to simulate a survey population, and was used in two laboratory assignments where students "interviewed" householders by a quota sampling procedure and tested the performance of several probability sampling designs. (Author/JEG)

A new approach to item analysis, concerned not only with differences among individuals, but also differences among the groups in which the individuals may have membership, is described. This multi-level aspect may be applied to studies of differences among individuals, classes, and schools, depending upon the kind of problem being studied and the…

Methods and results relevant to the introduction of item characteristic curve (ICC) models into classroom achievement testing are provided. The overall objective was to compare several common ICC models for item calibration and test equating in a classroom examination system. Parameters for the one-, two- and three-parameter logistic ICC models…

The setting of standards involves subjective value judgments. The inherent arbitrariness of specific standards has been severely criticized by Glass. His antagonists agree that standard setting is a judgmental task but they have pointed out that arbitrariness in the positive sense of serious judgmental decisions is unavoidable. Further, small…

Statistical data are presented on interviews conducted through the Continuous National Survey (CNS) at the National Opinion Research Center in Chicago and based on results reprinted from "Public Concepts of the Values and Costs of Higher Education," by Angus Campbell and William C. Eckerman. The CNS results presented in this report are…

The purposes of this project were to identify, review, and analyze student and employer follow-up efforts and to synthesize findings into a review of and synthesis document (reported here) and a vocational follow-up training manual (CE 022 288). The central focus of the project was on methodology rather than findings. The review was restricted to…

Available library statistical information is unreliable and missing in many areas. This report covers three general subjects: (1) the description of the nature of the figures that are currently available, including lists of library statistics publications, and an indication of some information which is wanted but not available; (2) a discussion of…

Prior to a study to determine the degree to which vocational training is related to employability, a pilot project was conducted to test the proposed research method and determine the bias that might arise from using samples taken from the telephone directory. The selected pilot sample, 835 residences in Hennepin County, Minnesota, was drawn from…

Techniques for estimating the labor supply in any locality from a town and its surrounding rural area to a county or multi-county area are presented. The labor supply in a community can be estimated by many means, including registrations of the unemployed, newspaper advertisements, and a census-type sampling survey of the population.…

Several methods of analyzing random samples of teacher behavior are discussed. Their assumptions and sensitivity, and the inferences they permit, are compared. Data of this kind might be obtained whenever program implementation is assessed by monitoring specific teacher behaviors. The quasi F ratio can be used in analyzing such data, but error…

Measures of consistency and completeness of order relations derived from test-type data are proposed. The measures are generalized to apply to incomplete data such as tailored testing. The measures are based on consideration of the items-plus-persons by items-plus-persons matrix as an adjacency matrix in which a 1 means that the row element…

The paper, one of a series written as the Management Information System for Occupational Education (MISOE) was conceptualized, examines relationships between the anticipated census and sample data to be developed and maintained by the system. Two related information sources are planned: one is a census information system which includes data about…