Piecewise GMM with unknown turning points is a new procedure to investigate heterogeneous subpopulations' growth trajectories consisting of distinct developmental phases. Unlike the conventional PGMM, which relies on theory or experiment design to specify turning points a priori, the new procedure allows for an optimal location of turning points…

Collapsing categories is a commonly used data reduction technique; however, to date there do not exist principled methods to determine whether collapsing categories is appropriate in practice. With ordinal responses under the partial credit model, when collapsing categories, the true model for the collapsed data is no longer a partial credit…

Whenever classification decisions are made on educational tests, such as pass/fail, or basic, proficient, or advanced, the consistency and accuracy of those decisions should be estimated and reported. Methods for estimating the reliability of classification decisions made on the basis of educational tests are well-established (e.g., Rudner, 2001;…

Research has demonstrated that classification as an English learner (EL) is consequential for students, with important effects on educational achievement and attainment. Yet we know little about the mechanisms that underlie the effects of EL classification. This study explores whether, and to what extent, EL classification results in the…

The present study aimed at determining the planner profiles of school administrators' through unearthing their beliefs and understandings towards strategic planning by adopting a typological perspective. The exploratory descriptive approach was employed in the research. The research was conducted with the participation of 21 school administrators…

Attribute structure is an explicit way of presenting the relationship between attributes in diagnostic measurement. The specification of attribute structures directly affects the classification accuracy resulted from psychometric modeling. This study provides a conceptual framework for understanding misspecifications of attribute structures. Under…

This research explores links between tertiary education institutions and between tertiary education and the labour market as determinants of provincial and national transition patterns in Canada. The study consists of a provincial analysis that maps the typology of transition systems across Canada's devolved federated tertiary education structure.…

McGrath presents a prototyping proposal to better classify character education programs. He proposes 7 key elements that can facilitate identifying more and less typical programs. This proposal appears to be a very good start for improving the organization of the character education field and facilitating research. This commentary highlights 4…

This article discusses why and how states are integrating "DC:0-5™: Diagnostic Classification of Mental Health and Developmental Disorders of Infancy and Early Childhood" (DC:0-5) into state policy and systems; provides state examples to highlight some of the strategies that states have used to allow, promote, or require the use of…

The present study investigated the relationship between category extension and intension for 11 different semantic categories. It is often tacitly assumed that there is a (strong) extension-intension link. However, a recent study by Hampton and Passanisi (2016) examining the patterns of stable individual differences in concepts across participants…

This book presents essential background necessary for understanding the role of theory in psychotherapy practice, and shows how understanding psychotherapy theory is the first step to becoming an effective therapist. The author provides a thorough but concise overview of the history of psychotherapy, the evolution of psychotherapy theories, and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyze and explore the effectiveness of using balanced scorecard (BSC) as a management tool in the evaluation of the performance and thereby the quality services of a University. Design/methodology/approach: The survey was conducted among the various faculties and departments Sohar University through a…

Although the thesis is an integral part of the study programme, the way the guidance for this work is supervised can highly differ between supervisors. Writing the thesis is a complicated process requiring tailored guidance, that is often not feasible due to increasing numbers of students and need for efficiency. One possible solution is working…

The acquisition of passives is well-studied in many languages, with evidence of crosslinguistic differences in the age at which passives are acquired. The aim of this study is to add to the existing knowledge of child acquisition of passives by providing data from Afrikaans and isiXhosa, two under-researched and typologically different languages…

California's K-12 funding and instructional policies for English learners (ELs) have changed significantly over the past 2 decades. The major policy shifts held the potential to change student learning outcome patterns for ELs. As a first step in identifying the potential impacts of these policy shifts, this report describes changes over time in…