Some statistical considerations in applying survey sampling methods to small populations are explored. (DS)

Data from the Displaced Worker Surveys appear to show that those who got advance notice are more likely to avoid unemployment, but if unemployed, they tend to remain so longer. Analysis suggests a measurement error as the cause. Although notified workers have more time to conduct a job search, their predisplacement search is not necessarily…

Considers the situation in which content or administrative considerations limit the way in which a test can be partitioned to estimate the internal consistency reliability of the total test score. Demonstrates that a single-valued estimate of the total score reliability is possible only if an assumption is made about the comparative size of the…

Obtained asymptotic standard errors of item, test, and score information function estimates, and used numerical illustrations to show that the response function estimates are rather stable in spite of the unstable parameter estimates. However, information function estimates are shown to be relatively unstable. (SLD)

It is demonstrated that, in the presence of population information, a linear combination of true scores can be estimated more efficiently than by the same linear combination of the observed scores. Three criteria for optimality are discussed, but they yield the same solution, described as a multivariate shrinkage estimator. (Author/SLD)

Analyzed 56 Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised protocols completed by 1 certified and 8 licensed practitioners to examine administration and scoring mistakes. Observed numerous mistakes (failure to record examinee responses, assigning too few or too many points to answers, inappropriate questioning, and failure to obtain correct…

The regression coefficients and the associated standard errors in hierarchical regression, when a theoretical basis for the analysis exists, are determined for four regression models. Each reflects different controlling or partialling of the variates. An illustration is presented using data from the Berkeley Growth Study. (SLD)

Used meta-analysis to cumulate reliabilities of personality scale scores, using 848 coefficients of stability and 1,359 internal consistency reliabilities across the Big Five factors of personality. The dimension of personality being measured does not appear to moderate strongly either internal consistency or the test-retest reliabilities.…

Describes four procedures previously developed for estimating conditional standard errors of measurement for scale scores and compares them in a simulation study. All four procedures appear viable. Recommends that test users select a procedure based on various factors such as the type of scale score of concern, test characteristics, assumptions…

Examined 60 Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Third Education (WISC-III) protocols administered by graduate students in training to obtain preliminary data on the frequency and types of administration and scoring errors that examiners commit. The five most frequent errors included failure to query, failure to record response verbatim,…

A linear regression approach to determining the number of factors in factor analytic solutions is presented. It provides objectivity while producing the same results as the visual scree test. Experience with the method to date indicates that the results are consistent with visual solutions. (SLD)

Examined the effects of sample size and other design features on correspondence between factors obtained from analysis of sample data and those present in the population from which the samples were drawn, examining these phenomena in the situation in which the common factor model does not hold exactly in the population. Tested a theoretical…

Using a sample of workers displaced by plant closings, a study attempted to reduce error bias in estimates of unions' effect on earnings. When estimations use the entire sample, longitudinal estimates are similar to those of cross-sectional regressions. When skill groups are estimated separately, unions have a positive effect for workers with low…

Examined the stability of the standard error of measurement and the relationship between the reliability coefficient and the variance of both true scores and error scores for 170 school districts in a state. As expected, reliability coefficients varied as a function of group variability, but the variation in split-half coefficients from school to…

Presents an Item Response Theory (IRT) method for estimating standard errors of measurement of scale scores for the situation in which scale scores are nonlinear transformations of number-correct scores. Also describes procedures for estimating the average conditional standard error of measurement for scale scores and the reliability of scale…