The current status of women and minorities in professional and managerial positions is examined and the situation in the year ahead to 1985 is forecast. Specific occupations chosen for this study include the entire occupational field of engineering including its major subfields (industrial, chemical, electrical, and mechanical). Other occupations…

Data accumulated over two years were analyzed in order to evaluate two components of a teacher education curriculum--performance objectives and self analysis skills. A multi-step procedure was devised and implemented which uses regression to illustrate the feasibility of implementing the procedure for curricular decision making. This procedure…

Planning for a computer-based personnel job opportunities system for the Air Force led to a requirement for a procedure to generate a "payoff" or "value" of the assignment of each person to each possible job. This report discusses three methods of weighting different information to form a single indicator "payoff" or "value," explicit weighting…

Three statistical problems related to criterion-referenced testing are investigated: estimation of the likelihood of a false-positive or false-negative decision with a mastery test, estimation of true scores in the Compound Binomial Error Model, and comparison of the examinees to a control. Two methods for estimating the likelihood of…

The State Planning System (SPS) is a policy-oriented management tool intended to help analyze the interrelated effects of alternative policies and their relationships to state goals. Two pilot-test case studies are described--the SPS tuition policy evaluation conducted in Colorado, and New York's SPS evaluation of the applicability of large scale…

This paper tests four models of the effect of the size of a subgroup of an organization on the proportion of attraction choices made by members of the subgroup that are given to other members of the subgroup. The data base consists of friendship and respect choices made by members of the Maryland State Police force. The four models are: simple…

A decision-theoretic procedure is outlined which provides a framework within which Bayesian statistical methods can be employed with criterion-referenced tests to improve the quality of decision making in objectives based instructional programs. (Author/DEP)

A work-scheduling model for Corrections Officers at State Correctional Institutions is described. This is a real-life model that was developed to deal with a problem of unacceptably large expenditures for overtime work by state prison guards. The problem involves more than 200 constraints and more than 800 variables. It is felt the model can be…

Models of the motion of an object through space are discussed. The material begins with the simplest view possible in which gravity is the only force examined. Discussion progresses to an examination of the drag force, which is the resistive air force of the wind. Suggestions for further improvements are made at the conclusion of the presentation.…

This document consists of four units. The first of these views calculus applications to work, area, and distance problems. It is designed to help students gain experience in: 1) computing limits of Riemann sums; 2) computing definite integrals; and 3) solving elementary area, distance, and work problems by integration. The second module views…

As part of an effort to reassess its enrollment forecasting methodology and techniques, the Florida Division of Community Colleges conducted a national survey of state directors of community/junior colleges to identify successful forecasting practices. A conceptual framework for analyzing responses was developed from a review of the literature on…

To test for item bias, it must be determined whether an item fits the model. Two approaches to defining bias within the framework of the Rasch model are examined. One compares within-group fit mean squares and the other utilizes a between-group fit statistic. Results from both approaches overlap somewhat, but are distinct in many different but…

This study examined the appropriateness of the use of criterion referenced tests as a means of controlling an individual student's advancement to the next level of instruction or retention in the current unit in the PLATO Air Force Base Computer-Based Education project at Chanute. The study was also concerned with program evaluation, which…

This Study Guide on Contemporary Problems, Number 8, is one of a series prepared by the American Association for the Advancement of Science representing part of the 1974-75 National Science Foundation Chautauqua-Type Short Courses for College Teachers Program. This is a test edition and contains evaluation forms to be completed by the users and to…

A logistic model was used to generate data to serve as a proxy for an immediate retest from item responses to a fourth grade standardized reading comprehension test of 45 items. Assuming that the actual test may be considered a pretest and the proxy data may be considered a retest, the effect of regression was investigated using a percentage of…