Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K), this paper applied optimal propensity score matching method to evaluate the effects of Head Start on children's kindergarten retention, reading and math achievement in fall kindergarten comparing with center-based care. Both parametric and nonparametric…

Objective: This study evaluates whether a course that was designed for first-year psychiatric residents and that specifically addressed psychodynamic principles fostered residents' progress in knowledge, skills, and attitudes regarding these concepts. Methods: The course was given in the 2005 academic year to all residents (N=18) in their first…

Principal components analysis (PCA) is used to explore the structure of data sets containing linearly related numeric variables. Alternatively, nonlinear PCA can handle possibly nonlinearly related numeric as well as nonnumeric variables. For linear PCA, the stability of its solution can be established under the assumption of multivariate…

Does the international student suffer from statistics anxiety? To investigate this, the Statistics Anxiety Rating Scale (STARS) was administered to sixty-six beginning statistics students, including twelve international students and fifty-four domestic students. Due to the small number of international students, nonparametric methods were used to…

The purpose of this study was to find out the effect of embossed picture technique when used in teaching reading to the pupils with hearing impairment. The study was guided by Piaget's theory of human mental development. The study adopted an experimental design. The study was carried out at Kambui School for the hearing impaired located on…

This article considers two methods of estimating standard errors of equipercentile equating: the parametric bootstrap method and the nonparametric bootstrap method. Using a simulation study, these two methods are compared under three sample sizes (300, 1,000, and 3,000), for two test content areas (the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills Maps and Diagrams…

This study examined the stability of adolescent physical and psychological dating aggression across both time and partners in a sample of 664 high school students using both nonparametric and growth curve (GC) modeling techniques. Nonparametric and GC modeling tests demonstrated moderate levels of stability of all forms of aggression.…

This paper develops an empirical methodology for the construction of a synthetic multi-dimensional cross-country comparison of the performance of governments around the world in improving the livelihood of their younger population. The devised "Youth Welfare Index" is based on the nonparametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology and…

Catalan numbers are defined by combinatorial properties, in numerous situations. Here, an integral representation for these Catalan numbers is computed.

This exploratory study examined differences in the problem representations of a case-based situation by expert and novice instructional designers. The experts and half of the novices (control group) received identical directions for case analysis, while the other novices (treatment group) received additional guidelines recommending analysis…

Students find science relevant to society, but they do not find school science interesting. This survey study analyzes Finnish grade 9 students' actual experiences with science teaching methods and their preferences for how they would like to study science. The survey data were collected from 3,626 grade 9 students (1,772 girls and 1,832 boys)…

A large class of rank tests which includes the "sign test" and Wilcoxon signed-ranks test is described. These distribution free tests provide a basis for testing various research hypotheses. Exact small sample and approximate large sample procedures are considered. Applications are presented including numerical examples. (Author/HG)

Kendall's S is often used for measuring magnitude of bivariate association in social and behavioral research. This nomogram permits a research analyst to make rapid and accurate evaluation of the statistical significance of S without recourse to formulae or computations in all except borderline cases. (Author/CTM)

Developed an extension of the Hollander and Sethuraman (M. Hollander and J. Sethuraman, 1978) statistic (B squared) for testing discordance among intra-block rankings of K elements for multiple groups of raters. Simulation results confirmed the usefulness of B squared as an omnibus test of interaction among intra-block ranks and demonstrated its…

Open and Distance Education if well organized, is an adequate alternative to conventional education. For acceptability of this assertion, the public, governments, employers of labour and other stakeholders need to be convinced that ODL institutions are not providing half-baked education. Also, for the public and other shareholders enthusiasm and…