This study investigated the leadership orientation frames of school district superintendents in Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi, which are the only three states in the United States with both elected and appointed school district superintendents. The theoretical framework for this study was developed by Bolman and Deal's (1997) four frame…

The purpose of the present study is to examine the language characteristics of a few states' large-scale assessments of mathematics and science and investigate whether the language demands of the items are associated with the degree of differential item functioning (DIF) for English language learner (ELL) students. A total of 542 items from 11…

This study examined undergraduate and graduate engineering students' epistemological beliefs as a function of their educational level. Schommer's (1998) Epistemological Questionnaire was used to assess the beliefs in quick learning, certain knowledge, fixed ability, and simple knowledge of 396 students attending two universities in Western…

Purpose: The objectives of this study were to develop measures of end-of-life (EOL) care processes in nursing homes and to validate the instrument for measuring them. Design and Methods: A survey of directors of nursing was conducted in 608 eligible nursing homes in New York State. Responses were obtained from 313 (51.5% response rate) facilities.…

This study uses data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 to test a conceptual model that integrates aspects of sociological and econometric frameworks into a traditional status attainment model for educational aspirations. Using descriptive and logistic analyses, this study advanced understanding of the patterns and stability of…

The School Climate Bullying Survey (Cornell & Sheras, 2003) is a self-report survey used to measure attitudes and behaviors associated with school bullying. Two studies were conducted to examine the valid use of its three school climate scales: (a) Prevalence of Teasing and Bullying, (b) Aggressive Attitudes, and (c) Willingness to Seek Help.…

There is a relationship between career indecision and anxiety, however the relative contributions of state and trait anxiety are unclear in the literature. 110 first-year university students completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and Career Decision Scale (CDS) to measure anxiety and career indecision. Regression analyses revealed that…

This book provides a uniquely accessible introduction to multilevel modeling, a powerful tool for analyzing relationships between an individual level dependent variable, such as student reading achievement, and individual-level and contextual explanatory factors, such as gender and neighborhood quality. Helping readers build on the statistical…

Two unresolved implementation issues with logistic regression (LR) for differential item functioning (DIF) detection include ability purification and effect size use. Purification is suggested to control inaccuracies in DIF detection as a result of DIF items in the ability estimate. Additionally, effect size use may be beneficial in controlling…

This study examines the ability of preschool speech-language measures and parent report in predicting later academic performance. Preschool measures of speech, language and communication for 35 children with language impairment were analyzed for their ability to predict reading, writing, spelling, and mathematics in these same children at age…

Colleges today see extra-curricular activities as ways to improve student retention and enhance the collegiate experience. This study examines student involvement, including participation in college activities, using campus facilities, communication patterns and campus friendships. Key predictors of involvement are identified from demographics,…

In the early 1990s, the National Science Foundation funded many research projects for improving statistical education. Many of these stressed the need for classroom activities that illustrate important issues of designing experiments, generating quality data, fitting models, and performing statistical tests. Our paper describes such an activity on…

The data for 104 software projects is used to develop a linear regression model that uses function points (a measure of software project size) to predict development effort. The data set is particularly interesting in that it violates several of the assumptions required of a linear model; but when the data are transformed, the data set satisfies…

The Commission on the Future of Higher Education appointed by Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings issued a report in September 2006 entitled "A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education" [U.S. Department of Education, 2006(ED493504)]. Two key commission recommendations are stated: "Higher education institutions should…

The effect of legal and extralegal factors on felony sentence outcomes has been widely studied, typically using a total incarceration variable that defines sentence outcomes as incarceration or probation. Research conducted by Holleran and Spohn has called this into question, revealing that factors that affected jail sentences were different than…