This technical report and user's guide is designed to provide researchers with an overview of the design and implementation of the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), as well as with information on how to access the PISA 2009 data. This information is meant to supplement that presented in Organization for Economic Cooperation…

This article provides a profile of a range of important variables for assessing diversity among different Latino groups from the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS). The NLAAS is a nationally representative study of the mental health needs and mental health services use of the Latino population of the United States. The NLAAS employs…

A sequential design utilizing identical samples was used to classify mixed methods studies via a two-dimensional model, wherein sampling designs were grouped according to the time orientation of each study's components and the relationship of the qualitative and quantitative samples. A quantitative analysis of 121 studies representing nine fields…

Multisite research designs involving cluster randomization are becoming increasingly important in educational and behavioral research. Researchers would like to compute effect size indexes based on the standardized mean difference to compare the results of cluster-randomized studies (and corresponding quasi-experiments) with other studies and to…

The authors critiqued the M. K. Lovelace (2005) meta-analysis of the Dunn and Dunn Model of Learning-Style Preferences (DDMLSP). The conclusion that Lovelace reported in her meta-analysis that learning-style instruction is a beneficial form of instructional delivery is unjustified because of critical conceptual and practical problems. Those…

In this laboratory experiment, students take environmental samples at various locations around the college campuses, take geospatial coordinates with a global position systems (GPS) unit, and map their results on a geo-referenced campus map with geographical information systems (GIS) software. Nitrogen dioxide air pollution sampling is used as an…

This paper investigates research methods for studies of school drop-outs and push-outs, populations that are very difficult to find since they no longer have an institutional affiliation. The work argues that street corner research, which was in favor among the early urban researchers of the Chicago school, may have a renewed role in these…

High quality assessment practice is expected to yield valid and useful score-based interpretations about what the examinees know and are able to do with respect to a defined target domain. Given this assertion, the article presents a framework based on the "unified view of validity," advanced by Cronbach and Messick over two decades ago, to assist…

At present, although the percentages of students with disabilities (SDs) and/or students who are English language learners (ELL) excluded from a NAEP administration are reported, no statistical adjustment is made for these excluded students in the calculation of NAEP results. However, the exclusion rates for both SD and ELL students vary…

Using Microsoft® Excel, several interactive, computerized learning modules are developed to illustrate the Central Limit Theorem's appropriateness for comparing the difference between the means of any two populations. These modules are used in the classroom to enhance the comprehension of this theorem as well as the concepts that provide the…

Empirical evidence is presented related to the effects of using a stratified sampling of items in multiple matrix sampling on the accuracy of estimates of the population mean. Data were obtained from a sample of 600 high school students for a 36-item mathematics test and a 40-item vocabulary test, both subtests of the Iowa Tests of Educational…

Technical considerations associated with item selection and reliability assessment are considered in relation to criterion-referenced tests constructed to provide group information. The purpose is to emphasize test building and the evaluation of test scores in program evaluation studies. It is stressed that an evaluator employ a performance or…

One purpose of educational research is to provide information about the likely impact of interventions or treatments on policy-relevant populations of students. Randomized experiments are useful for estimating the causal effects of interventions on the students in schools that participate in the experiments. Unfortunately, the samples of schools…

The concept under investigation was the reliability of estimates of mean scores of groups under various assumptions of multiple-matrix sampling when reliabilities are computed according to procedures based on generalizability theory. Four different cases were compared with respect to the generalizability coefficients depending upon whether pupils…

The use of stepwise methodologies has been sharply criticized by several researchers, yet their popularity, especially in educational and psychological research, continues unabated. Stepwise methods have been considered particularly well suited for use in regression and discriminant analyses, but their use in discriminant analysis (predictive…