The ALTC Exchange (formerly the Carrick Exchange), is a national repository and networking service for Australian higher education. The Exchange was designed to provide access to a repository of shared learning and teaching resources, work spaces for team members engaged in collaborative projects, and communication and networking services. The…

Instability in the school population between school entrance and school leaving is not "just a problem of missing data" but often the visible result of the educational problems in some schools and is, therefore, not merely to be treated as missing data but as indicator for the quality of educational processes. Even the most superior…

This study evaluated and described student perceptions of a course in agroecology to determine if participants experienced changed perceptions and behaviors resulting from the Agroecosystems Analysis course. A triangulation validating quantitative data mixed methods approach included a written survey comprised of both quantitative and open-ended…

Good quality data is paramount for applied economic research. If the data are distorted, corresponding conclusions may be incorrect. We demonstrate how Benford's law, the distribution that first digits of numbers in certain data sets should follow, can be used to test for data abnormalities. We conduct an analysis of nine commonly used data sets…

Combining diverse methods in a single study raises a problem: What should be done when the findings of one method of investigation conflict with those of another? The authors illustrate this problem using an example in which three study phases--quantitative, qualitative, and intervention--are applied. The findings from the quantitative phase did…

The Community College Student Report (CCSR) is a widely-used survey instrument. This article examines the reliability and validity of the instrument to assess its usefulness in institutional research and practice. Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrate that factor analytic models adequately represent underlying constructs. Confirmatory factor…

This paper describes the confirmatory factor analysis, validity, and reliability data collection stage of the development of a scale to measure mainstream teachers' self-efficacy beliefs for teaching ELL (English Language Learner) students. Data were collected from 708 K through 12 teachers and pre-service teachers with varying degrees of…

Counselors and researchers interested in examining meaning in life often use the Life Regard Index (LRI; J. Battista & R. Almond, 1973). In this study, confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) of several factor models based on J. Battista & R. Almond's work failed to support the structural validity of the LRI. CFA results suggested an influence of…

This study investigates differences in the partial scoring performance of examinees in elimination testing and conventional dichotomous scoring of multiple-choice tests implemented on a computer-based system. Elimination testing that uses the same set of multiple-choice items rewards examinees with partial knowledge over those who are simply…

In this article, data from the Reading Literacy study conducted in 2000 and 2001 as part of the OECD "Programme for International Student Assessment" (PISA) were analysed in order to explore equivalence issues across the 47 test adaptations in various languages of instruction that were used by the participating countries. On average,…

Describes an improved version of the Menne program, ITEMA, which combines several analysis procedures with option capabilities. (RC)