States that the teaching of logit regression analysis is much neglected in statistics courses within sociology. Claims that logit regression allows the researcher to evaluate the impact of a set of predictor variables on a dichotomous dependent variable without the problems associated with discriminant analysis, weighted least squares regression,…

Comparison of three microcomputer statistical packages, SPSS, SAS, and BMDP, focuses on ease of use, ease of learning, documentation, accuracy, similarity to the mainframe version, and speed. The results of eight statistical multivariate analyses used to evaluate their performance are given. (LRW)

Compares professors' ratings of the pedagogical quality of 43 introductory psychology texts with measures of 29 objective features such as manuscript length and number of references. Regression analysis showed that the 29 features predicted substantial portions of the variance in the professors' ratings. States that the comparative data may be…

Argues that library book circulation is a binomial rather than a Poisson process, and that individual book popularities are continuous beta distributions. Three examples demonstrate the superiority of beta over negative binomial distribution, and it is suggested that a bivariate-binomial process would be helpful in predicting future book…

The paper presents a unified approach to some of the more popular nonparametric methods in current use, providing the reader with new insights by exhibiting relationships to relevant population parameters. (Author/LMO)

This article isolates correlates of departmental quality at the graduate level in colleges. Departmental quality is found to be correlated with individual and combined measures of faculty, students, program, and facilities. Findings suggest that factors associated with graduate departmental quality are more multidimensional in regional colleges…

A method requiring minimal computational effort is presented for transforming ordered residuals for purposes of testing the correctness of a regression model. The method maintains the same logical ordering in the transformed residuals as that of the original residuals and is suitable for either correlated or uncorrelated data. (Author/BS)

Available approaches for determing significant differences between various groups are considered for use when the homogeneity of slopes precludes standard analysis of covariance. The advantages and statistical procedures for relating to a reference group are presented and criteria are suggested for choosing the best groups. (Author)

Explains the rationale, methodology, and advantages of the regression equation approach to quantifying academic discrepancy, an aspect of learning disability. Variations of the expectancy formula and IQ-achievement difference approach produce serious errors of including too many above average children and too few below average. (JAC)

This study compared two statistical approaches, predictive discriminant function analysis and binary logistic regression analysis, to determine the characteristics of at-risk students who succeeded in comparison with those who did not succeed in a project-based alternative high school program. The study also investigated true positive hit rates…

The effects of class size on student achievement in science were studied using grade 8 science achievement mean scale scores for 138 Tennessee public school districts, focusing on the total population of districts and on districts in the upper and lower quartile of science performance (n=52). The dependent variable was district aggregate science…

While it is imperative that attempts be made to assess the predictive accuracy of any prediction model, traditional measures of predictive accuracy have been criticized as suffering from "the base rate problem." The base rate refers to the relative frequency of occurrence of the event being studied in the population of interest, and the…

Stepwise methods are frequently employed in educational and psychological research, both to select useful subsets of variables and to evaluate the order of importance of variables. Three problems with stepwise applications are explored in some detail. First, computer packages use incorrect degrees of freedom in their stepwise computations,…

To ensure fairness, it is of critical importance that testing programs make sure that essay items given to examinees are equivalent in difficulty. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the stability and accuracy of a logistic regression based polytomous essay difficulty index. Preliminary results from a simulation study (9 conditions with a…

This paper is designed to show how graphics display calculators can be used to analyze data. The paper describes a classroom activity, where students calculate a linear regression on a data set and answer questions related to the regression. Teaching notes, a full solution, and calculator instructions are included as are blackline masters. (MM)