This article presents a standard-setting procedure for performance assessment in a foreign language, through which some of the major problems facing performance assessment in criterion-referenced testing can be addressed. The procedure, which was geared to revealing and accommodating inter-judge variability, employed the synergy of multiple…

A new test assembly algorithm based on a Monte Carlo random search is presented in this article. A major advantage of the Monte Carlo test assembly over other approaches (integer programming or enumerative heuristics) is that it performs a uniform sampling from the item pool, which provides every feasible item combination (test) with an equal…

A method for incorporating maximum likelihood (ML) estimation into reliability analyses with item-level missing data is outlined. An ML estimate of the covariance matrix is first obtained using the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm, and coefficient alpha is subsequently computed using standard formulae. A simulation study demonstrated that…

Ipsative data (individual scores subject to a constant-sum constraint), suggested to minimize response bias, are sometimes observed in behavioral sciences. Chan and Bentler (1993, 1996) proposed a method to analyze ipsative data in a single-group case. Cheung and Chan (2002) extended the method to multiple-group analysis. However, these methods…

This article presents initial findings from an evaluation research study of the implementation of a Web-based decision support tool, the Quality School Portfolio (QSP), developed at the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The study focused on…

The help seeking patterns of 139 secondary school youth between the ages of 14 and 22 in two peri-urban and one rural secondary school in the Eastern Cape, and one urban and one rural secondary school in KwaZulu-Natal were studied. Youth were interviewed in focus groups about their problems and whether or not they seek help for these problems.…

Associations between self-esteem and abuse of alcohol and psychoactive substances have been documented in empirical studies involving high school and college students. No research exists that addresses whether this association generalizes to adult homeless substance users. The current study uses secondary data analysis methodology to evaluate an…

In recent years the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township in Indianapolis has been awash in data. In attempts to improve levels of student achievement, the authors collected all manner of statistical details about students and schools and attempted to perform data analysis as part of the school improvement process. The authors were never…

Every college and university institutional advancement office would like to point to eminent alumni, living or deceased, as part of the institution's cultural legacy. However, little is known about the dynamics of how eminent alumni influence the reputations of their alma maters, particularly in the age of the internet. Has the internet created a…

Pollination is a broad area of study within biology. For many plants, pollen carried by wind is required for successful seed set. Airborne pollen also affects human health. To foster studies of airborne pollen, we introduce a simple device--the "megastigma"--for collecting pollen from the air. This device is flexible, yielding easily obtained data…

The purpose of this study was to determine and compare the reliability of 3 dimension reaction forces and impulses in walking with 3 different heel shoe conditions. These results suggest that changing the height of the heels affects mainly the reliability of the ground reaction force and impulse measures on the medial and lateral dimension and not…

In this article, the authors describe a study of a web-based, teambuilding instructional module that included activities designed to improve collaboration skills among team members conducting online projects. This module was formatively evaluated using 24 graduate students who were enrolled in an online course that assigned two online team…

In this paper, the efficiency of conditional maximum likelihood (CML) and marginal maximum likelihood (MML) estimation of the item parameters of the Rasch model in incomplete designs is investigated. The use of the concept of F-information (Eggen, 2000) is generalized to incomplete testing designs. The scaled determinant of the F-information…

Despite the intersectoral nature of health promotion practice many programs limit their evidence base to health sector research and do not draw on evidence from other sectors' research in program design. To help ensure programs are relevant and acceptable to intersectoral partners and intended outcomes are of value to all sectors involved,…

Self-discrepancy (SD) theories and self-enhancement (SE) theories have focused primarily on people's motivations to seek either self-consistent or self-enhancing feedback. The two sets of theories, however, also suggest different reactions to the feedback people receive from others. SE theories suggest that people react negatively to evaluations…