We examine university choice as a case of consumer decision making and adopt a brand elimination framework. This approach is predicated on the grounds that a large amount of research in consumer behavior has shown that in markets where there are many alternative brands, consumers use phased-decision strategies. In these research studies, the…

This paper tests the hypothesis that World Bank education projects have a higher likelihood of being successful if at the time of appraisal, they underwent good quality economic analysis. Analysis shows a strong relationship between the quality of cost-benefit analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis and the quality of project outcomes. Economic…

Finding accurate predictors of tertiary academic performance, specifically for disadvantaged students, is essential because of budget constraints and the need of the labour market to address employment equity. Increased retention, throughput and decreased dropout rates are vital. When making admission decisions, the under preparedness of students…

This article presents an in-class Monte Carlo demonstration, designed to demonstrate to students the implications of multicollinearity in a multiple regression study. In the demonstration, students already familiar with multiple regression concepts are presented with a scenario in which the "true" relationship between the response and…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate how to measure student satisfaction and how its elements influence on its overall perspective earned in e-learning (EL). This study focuses on the context where EL is used as a supplementary tool to enhance instruction. Design/methodology/approach: This study focuses on undergraduate courses…

The purposes of this study were to examine the variables related to the special education students' stereotyped behavior in Taiwan, to understand types and functions of these students' stereotyped behavior, and to investigate the impact of such stereotypy on teaching in special educational classrooms. Questionnaires were sent to 308 classroom…

The purpose of this study was to develop the Scale for Program Facilitators (SPF) to assess the effectiveness of after school achievement programs through four steps: (a) identification of a theoretical framework, (b) formulation of the initial scale, (c) test of content validity, and (d) conducting confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). A…

Researchers have typically found a mean difference of about 15 points between Blacks and Whites on traditional measures of intelligence. Some have argued that the difference between Blacks and Whites would be smaller on measures of cognitive processing. This study examined Black (n = 298) and White (n = 1,691) children on Planning, Attention,…

Objective: This study examines the quality of evaluation studies using qualitative research methods in the social work literature in terms of a number of criteria commonly adopted in the field of qualitative research. Method: Using qualitative and evaluation as search terms, relevant qualitative evaluation studies from 1990 to 2003 indexed by…

We report on the development of students' ideas of probability and probability density in a University of Maine laboratory-based general education physics course called "Intuitive Quantum Physics". Students in the course are generally math phobic with unfavorable expectations about the nature of physics and their ability to do it. We…

This study was conducted in the spring of 2002 at Arlington High School in a Probability and Statistics course for junior and senior level students. Two sections of the class were compared with respect to the use/non-use of EXCEL in the course. The experimental group (the one using EXCEL) outperformed the control group on five of the six…

Using a sample of White and Native American high school students, the authors provide a test of (a) self-control theory's invariance thesis and (b) native traditionalism as an explanation of Native American substance use. Self-control significantly influenced all forms of substance use when controlling for race and in race-specific analyses.…

LibQUAL+[TM] data to date have not been subjected to the modern measurement theory called polytomous item response theory (IRT). The data interpreted here were collected from 42,090 participants who completed the "American English" version of the 22 core LibQUAL+[TM] items, and 12,552 participants from Australia and Europe who…

Statistical literacy is defined as "the ability to read and interpret data: the ability to use statistics as evidence in arguments. Statistical literacy is a competency: the ability to think critically about statistics" (Schield, p. 2). When a definition of statistical literacy is considered it can be seen that all students can manage a…

This article examines major threats to the validity of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in the context of rural schools. Although rural students and their schools made significant academic progress in the past on national and state assessments, the current goal of AYP turns out to be highly unrealistic for them unless states set far lower…