A study comparing citations received by patents in given year to number received in subsequent years found that, even though influential patents remain influential, both highly and infrequently cited patents age at same rate. Distribution of patents by number of citations received is stable over time. (17 references) (EJS)

This article systematically analyzes four widely used types of definitions for literacy and points out their usefulness for practitioners and implications for policy and practice. It is implied throughout that the accepted definition of literacy reflects the practitioner's philosophy of learning and influences practice. (Author/CT)

This paper demonstrates the variety of positive-skew phenomena and discusses their theoretical, research, and practical implications in education. (PN)

A procedure and a computing diagram for assigning score boundaries to grading categories on classroom tests are described. The procedure takes both the median ability level of the class and the test performance of the class relative to that of other classes into account. (Author)

This paper considers the following questions: (1) what is the relationship between the method of paired comparisons and Rasch measurement theory? (2) what is the relationship between the method of paired comparisons and graph theory? and (3) what can graph theory contribute to the understanding of Rasch measurement theory? It is specifically shown…

In this paper, six statistical tests of stochastic equality are compared with respect to Type I error and power through a Monte Carlo simulation. In the simulation, the skewness and kurtosis levels and the extent of variance heterogeneity of the two parent distributions were varied across a wide range. The sample sizes applied were either small or…

Formulae and graphs are presented allowing computation of the variances of three prototypical distributions over a finite number of categories. The uses of the variances of the maximum variance distribution, the uniform distribution and a unimodal triangular distribution to make inferences about distribution shapes are shown in several examples.…

The use of prevalence data is discussed to help find the best way to separate at-risk and not-at-risk groups. Implications of the data being distributed normally are also discussed and several examples, including one with a nonnormal distribution, are given. (Author/GK)

The normalized mean is developed and discussed as a descriptive measure of central location. The advantages of the normalized mean over the arithmetic mean, median, and trimmed mean are discussed. (Author)

Glass's estimator of effect size, the sample mean difference divided by the sample standard deviation, is studied in the context of an explicit statistical model. The exact distribution of Glass's estimator is obtained and the estimator is shown to have a small sample bias. Alternatives are proposed and discussed. (Author/JKS)

Using the characteristic curve method for dichotomously scored test items, the sampling distributions of equating coefficients were examined. Simulations indicate that for the equating conditions studied, the sampling distributions of the equating coefficients appear to have acceptable characteristics, suggesting confidence in the values obtained…

The meta-analytic method proposed by S. W. Raudenbush (1988) for studying variance heterogeneity was studied. Results of a Monte Carlo study indicate that the Type I error rate of the test is sensitive to even modestly platykurtic score distributions and to the ratio of study sample size to the number of studies. (SLD)

A simple approximation to the conditional distribution of goodness-of-fit statistics for the Rasch model is presented that is used when item difficulties are known. The approximation, which is easily programmed, gives relatively accurate assessments of conditional p-values for tests of 10 or more items. (Author/SLD)

A Monte Carlo evaluation of four test statistics for comparing dependent zero-order correlations was conducted with four sample sizes and three population distributions. Results indicate that choice of optimal test statistic depends on sample size and distribution, and predictor intercorrelation and effect size or magnitude of the…

Proposes a method for the comparative analysis of concentration in author productivity distributions; selects suitable measures, Gini's index and number of authors, for two viewpoints regarding productivity; discusses statistical peculiarities of author productivity data; and explains developmental profiles which take into account sample size…