W. M. K. Trochim and others defend the record of the regression-discontinuity (RD) design and blur the statistical tests for treatment effect. Their Monte Carlo results show the problematic nature of RD and its potential bias. New testing strategies and restrictions for the application of RD are proposed. (SLD)

Multilevel models used to assess and compare school effectiveness, particularly their application to multivariate data, are critiqued. Problems associated with standard errors of measurement and the various components of "school effect" are highlighted in terms of how they could affect incautious application of the models. (TJH)

Four approaches to estimating interrater reliability in early childhood special education research are illustrated and compared: correlation, comparison of means, percentage of agreement, and generalizability theory techniques. Generalizability theory techniques are proposed as a method for estimating the amount of variance attributable to…

Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood (p-ML) and Asymptotically Distribution Free (ADF) estimation methods for estimating dynamic factor model parameters within a covariance structure framework were compared through a Monte Carlo simulation. Both methods appear to give consistent model parameter estimates, but only ADF gives standard errors and chi-square…

Presents a general discussion of the conceptual and operational limitations found within the existing efforts to assess constructs central to the study of parents. The discussion is followed by a review and critique of measures designed to assess concepts central to research on parents. Includes recommendations to improve the quality of measures.…

Empirical studies demonstrated Type-I error (TIE) inflation (especially for highly discriminating easy items) of the Mantel-Haenszel chi-square test for differential item functioning (DIF), when data conformed to item response theory (IRT) models more complex than Rasch, and when IRT proficiency distributions differed only in means. However, no…

Objectives: To evaluate whether or not the original six-factor structure of the Child Abuse Potential (CAP) Inventory suggested by [Milner, J. S. (1986). "The Child Abuse Potential Inventory: Manual" (2nd ed.). DeKalb, IL: Psytec. Inc.] can be confirmed with data from a group of Chinese mothers in Hong Kong. Method: Eight hundred and…

Two Monte Carlo studies were conducted to explore the Type I error rates in moderated multiple regression (MMR) of observed scores and estimated latent trait scores from a two-parameter logistic item response theory (IRT) model. The results of both studies showed that MMR Type I error rates were substantially higher than the nominal alpha levels…

Test-retest reliability of the Test of Variables of Attention (T.O.V.A.) was investigated in two studies using two different time intervals: 90 min and 1 week (plus or minus 2 days). To investigate the 90-min reliability, 31 school-age children (M = 10 years, SD = 2.66) were administered the T.O.V.A. then read ministered the test 90 min afterward.…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the criterion-related validity of a 3-min step test using 3 stepping cadences. Chinese children (N = 50; age = 8.92 plus or minus 1.64 years) performed three 3-min bouts of a bench stepping exercise on a 12-in.-high (30.5 cm) bench. Stepping cadences for the 3 step tests were 22, 26, and 30 steps per…

A simulation study was conducted to examine the effect of item parceling on confirmatory factor analysis parameter estimates and their standard errors at different levels of sample size, number of indicators per factor, size of factor structure/pattern coefficients, magnitude of interfactor correlations, and variations in item-level data…

To deal with nonnormal and heterogeneous data for the one-way fixed effect analysis of variance model, the authors adopted a trimmed means method in conjunction with Hall's invertible transformation into a heteroscedastic test statistic (Alexander-Govern test or Welch test). The results of simulation experiments showed that the proposed technique…

In large-scale assessment programs such as NAEP, TIMSS and PISA, students' achievement data sets provided for secondary analysts contain so-called "plausible values." Plausible values are multiple imputations of the unobservable latent achievement for each student. In this article it has been shown how plausible values are used to: (1)…

In this paper, we use two complementary Italian data sources (the 1995 ISTAT and Bank of Italy household surveys) to generate household-specific nondurable expenditure in the Bank of Italy sample that contains relatively high-quality income data. We show that food expenditure data are of comparable quality and informational content across the two…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop guidelines for the statistical analysis of percentage of syllables stuttered (%SS) data in stuttering research. Method; Data on %SS from various independent sources were used to develop a statistical model to describe this type of data. On the basis of this model, %SS data were simulated with…