Some of the different approaches to standard setting are discussed. Brief comments and references are offered concerning strategies that rely primarily on the use of expert judgment. Controversy surrounds methods that use expert judges, as well as those using test groups to set scores empirically. A minimax procedure developed by H. Huynh, an…

A study compared the newly developed Interpersonal Complexity Sort (ICS) with the widely used measure of cognitive differentiation, the Role Category Questionnaire (RCQ). Both measures were tested for relationships between the two measures and between each measure and previous associated impression structure dependent measures. Using a trait…

This study sought to determine whether categorizing information would increase students' ability to recall that information. Two recall tests, consisting of a list of 30 words in random order and a list of the same 30 words grouped into 6 categories, was developed and administered to 2 groups of 16 fourth- and fifth-grade students enrolled in a…

Many students find climate classification laborious and time-consuming, and through their lack of repetition fail to grasp the details of classification. This paper describes an expert system for climate classification that is being developed at Middle Tennessee State University. Topics include: (1) an introduction to the nature of classification,…

Presents an "infobase" version of "A Pilot Standard National Course Classification System for Secondary Education" to allow users to browse, search, annotate, print, and export information electronically. This publication is the culmination of a major effort to help establish common terminology, descriptions, and a coding…

This study focused on the robustness of unidimensional item response theory (UIRT) models in computerized classification testing against violation of the unidimensionality assumption. The study addressed whether UIRT models remain acceptable under various testing conditions and dimensionality strengths. Monte Carlo simulation techniques were used…

In the mid-1960s, social scientists Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss developed grounded theory as a systematic and rigorous method of qualitative data analysis leading to "the discovery of theory from data." In grounded theory, the researcher applies a set of coding procedures to the data until a provisional theory emerges inductively.…

This paper examines whether the social science-based typology of Yvonne Lincoln and Egon Guba (1994), in which social science scholars are divided into positivist, postpositivist, critical, and constructivist paradigms based on ontological, epistemological, and methodological assumptions in the discipline, can be adapted to the academic discipline…

A discussion of Indo-European languages proposes that this language family is not genetically isolated but is distantly related to certain other language families of northern and central Eurasia, the Indian subcontinent, and the ancient Near East. The history of research into this macrofamily of languages, termed Nostratic, is reviewed, with notes…

A discriminatory process that sorts individuals on the basis of their estimated value or worth reaches into every aspect of individual life today. This process is referred to as the panoptic sort, the all-seeing eye of the difference machine that guides the global capitalist system. The panoptic sort is a kind of high-tech, cybernetic triage that…

This handbook is an effort to establish current and consistent terms, definitions, and classification codes to maintain, collect, report, and exchange comparable information about students. It is a reference guide to those concerned with the collection of student data. Definitions reflect a consensus about best practice in the field of education…

Educational reform efforts have led to increased use of alternatives to the traditional binary-scored multiple choice item. Many stimuli employed by these alternative assessments yield complex responses that require complex scoring rules. Some of these new item types can be polytomously-scored. Differential item functioning (DIF) assessment is a…

An analysis of lexical innovation in Ghanaian English uses ten linguistic categories identified in earlier research on Nigerian English, offering an explanation of each category and a number of examples. The categories include: loanshifts (English words manipulated to produce and transmit meanings beyond purely denotative reference and conveying a…

This paper examines two fields that contribute to research on digital libraries--information systems and orality-literary studies--and applies them to a particular digital library domain, botanical taxonomic work. Topics discussed include: (1) an introduction to HOSS (i.e., a computationally-oriented hypermedia system) architecture, including the…

The purpose of many certification or licensure tests is to identify candidates who possess some level of minimum competence to practice their profession. In general, this type of test is referred to as classification testing. When this type of test is administered with a computer, the test is a computerized classification test (CCT). This paper…