This report examines the differences in impact estimates and standard errors that arise when these are derived using state achievement tests only (as pre-tests and post-tests), study-administered tests only, or some combination of state- and study-administered tests. State tests may yield different evaluation results relative to a test that is…

To develop and test a latent variable path model of general achievement, aptitude for medicine and competence in medicine employing data from the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), pre-medical undergraduate grade point average (UGPA) and demographic characteristics for competence in pre-clinical and measures of competence (United States…

Psychologists have discovered a phenomenon called "Belief Bias" in which subjects rate the strength of arguments based on the believability of the conclusions. This paper reports the results of a small qualitative pilot study of undergraduate students who had previously taken an algebra-based introduction to statistics class. The subjects in this…

Bayesian statistical inference within structural equation modeling was used to examine the influence of hypothetical constructs on the successful persistence of college freshmen to degree completion. The affects of three latent variables: (a) academic capital; (b) cultural capital; and, (c) social capital were compared between White/Caucasian…

The purpose of the recently proposed "p[subscript rep]" statistic is to estimate the probability of concurrence, that is, the probability that a replicate experiment yields an effect of the same sign (Killeen, 2005a). The influential journal "Psychological Science" endorses "p[subscript rep]" and recommends its use…

The sense that replicability is an important aspect of empirical science led Killeen (2005a) to define "p[subscript rep]," the probability that a replication will result in an outcome in the same direction as that found in a current experiment. Since then, several authors have praised and criticized 'p[subscript rep]," culminating…

This comment offers three descriptions of "p[subscript rep]" that start with a frequentist account of confidence intervals, draw on R. A. Fisher's fiducial argument, and do not make Bayesian assumptions. Links are described among "p[subscript rep]," "p" values, and the probability a confidence interval will capture…

In this article, the authors focus on hypothesis testing--that peculiarly statistical way of deciding things. Statistical methods for testing hypotheses were developed in the 1920s and 1930s by some of the most famous statisticians, in particular Ronald Fisher, Jerzy Neyman and Egon Pearson, who laid the foundations of almost all modern methods of…

Meta-analysis is a frequent tool among education and behavioral researchers to combine results from multiple experiments to arrive at a clear understanding of some effect of interest. One of the traditional assumptions in a meta-analysis is the independence of the effect sizes from the studies under consideration. This article presents a…

This article proposes an extension of dominance analysis that allows researchers to determine the relative importance of predictors in logistic regression models. Criteria for choosing logistic regression R[superscript 2] analogues were determined and measures were selected that can be used to perform dominance analysis in logistic regression. A…

Socio-scientific issues have become increasingly important in Science-Technology-Society (STS) education as a means to make science learning more relevant to students' lives. This study used the e-waste issue as a context to investigate two aspects of socio-scientific decision-making: (1) the relationship between the nature of science (NOS)…

Model evaluation in covariance structure analysis is critical before the results can be trusted. Due to finite sample sizes and unknown distributions of real data, existing conclusions regarding a particular statistic may not be applicable in practice. The bootstrap procedure automatically takes care of the unknown distribution and, for a given…

Bootstrap methods and randomization tests are increasingly being used as alternatives to standard statistical procedures in biology. They also serve as an effective introduction to the key ideas of statistical inference in introductory courses for biology students. We discuss the use of such simulation based procedures in an integrated curriculum…

This paper focuses on developing students' informal inference skills, reporting on how a group of third grade students formulated and evaluated data-based inferences using the dynamic statistics data-visualization environment TinkerPlots[TM] (Konold & Miller, 2005), software specifically designed to meet the learning needs of students in the…

Informal inferential reasoning has shown some promise in developing students' deeper understanding of statistical processes. This paper presents a framework to think about three key principles of informal inference--generalizations "beyond the data," probabilistic language, and data as evidence. The authors use primary school classroom…