I use unusually detailed data on schools, teachers and classrooms to explain student achievement growth in rural Guatemala. Several variables that have received little attention in previous studies--including the number of school days, teacher content knowledge and pedagogical methods--are robust predictors of achievement. A series of…

Background: We have few data on incidence of psychiatric disorders among adolescents. This study examined first incidence of disorders among adolescents and baseline factors which increased or decreased risk of new onset cases a year later. Methods: Data were analyzed from Teen Health 2000 (TH2K), a probability sample of 4,175 youths 11-17 and…

The purpose of this study was to link consultant and teacher verbal interaction patterns to consultation outcomes. Participants were 4 consultants, 20 teachers, and 20 elementary school students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Audiotaped Problem Analysis Interviews (PAIs) from Project PASS (Promoting Academic Success in Students)…

This study examined the extent to which kindergarteners' classroom behavioral engagement mediated the relation between global classroom quality and children's reading achievement. A structural equation framework was used to analyze data collected in a primarily low-income rural sample (N = 171). Children's reading achievement was measured in the…

Objective: To identify childhood psychiatric symptoms as antecedents of cigarette smoking at age 18. Methods: In 1989, a general population sample of 2946 8-year-old boys born in Finland in 1981 was assessed using the Rutter's parent and teacher questionnaires, and the Child Depression Inventory. This birth cohort was followed up in 1999, when the…

This study analyzes parent and professional organizations' effectiveness in national special education policy from 1975 to the present. Of specific interest are the relationships between groups' policy victories, how groups construct their political messages, and organizational characteristics. The research is significant in that it is one of the…

The present study uses a feminist theoretical framework to explore risk factors for the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms following intimate partner violence, with a community sample of 120 low-income European American and African American women. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to examine demographic, violence, and mental…

A method for comparing the cross-validated classification accuracies of predictive discriminant analysis and logistic regression classification models is presented under varying data conditions for the two-group classification problem. With this method, separate-group, as well as total-sample proportions of the correct classifications, can be…

An alternative is proposed for the Johnson-Neyman procedure (P. O. Johnson and J. Neyman, 1936). Used when heterogeneous regression lines for two groups are analyzed, the Johnson-Neyman procedure is a technique in which the difference between the two linear regression surfaces for the criterion variate (Y) is estimated conditional on a realization…

Many researchers are unfamiliar with suppressor variables and how they operate in multiple regression analyses. This paper describes the role suppressor variables play in a multiple regression model and provides practical examples that explain how they can change research results. A variable that when added as another predictor increases the total…

The relationship between the quantity of nonacademic achievements and personality test scores was investigated. The nonacademic score was derived from nine nonacademic achievement scales on the American College Test. The predictor variables consisted of 14 scale scores from the Omnibus Personality Inventory and one academic aptitude measure.…

This study was designed to: (1) assess the influence of an instructional set given to an observer regarding the presence or absence of a predictable pattern in the observed interaction, (2) extend and replicate findings of a previous study of observer accuracy, and (3) identify some of the specific types of errors made by observers in coding…

The purpose of this study was to determine which of six methods of ordering variables in a discriminant analysis yields subsets of variables that have the greatest discriminatory power. One method is based on univariate mean-square (or F) ratios, a second method on stepwise ordering, two methods on linear discriminant function (LDF) variable…

The E (for Euclidean) correlation coefficient is introduced as a general formulation of a variety of measures of association. Characteristics of the coefficient are discussed, and 23 measures of association are shown to be or not be E coefficients. (JKS)

Ridge regression is an approach to ameliorating the problem of large standard errors of regression estimates when predictor variables are highly intercorrelated. An interactive computer program is presented which allows for investigation of the effects of using various ridge regression adjustment values. (JKS)