As item response models gain increased popularity in large-scale educational and measurement testing situations, many studies have been conducted on the development and applications of unidimensional and multidimensional models. Recently, attention has been paid to IRT-based models with an overall ability dimension underlying several ability…

Like many technology teachers, the author, a technology education teacher at Arthur Hill High School in Saginaw, Michigan, tries to stretch his budget by "milking" each student activity for maximum benefit. In the technology department, they use balsa wood towers to teach the basics of structural engineering. To get the most from their materials,…

The effect of orthographic transparency on letter position encoding was investigated using a visual search task given to skilled readers of English (a deep orthography) or Greek (a transparent orthography). Two groups of younger participants, matched for age and education, were monoscriptal in English, or biscriptal in Greek and English. Two…

Despite its popularity in other countries, like America and Canada, peer editing is considered quite "avant-garde" in the Hong Kong academic community and has never been a common practice in local secondary schools' classrooms. This paper will try to unveil the reasons why a number of Hong Kong English teachers are reluctant to use…

Scores are the most visible and widely used products of a testing program. The choice of score scale has implications for test specifications, equating, and test reliability and validity, as well as for test interpretation. At the same time, the score scale should be viewed as infrastructure likely to require repair at some point. In this report…

The purpose of this study was to build upon Askins's 2002 research by examining the perceptions of Georgia educators as it relates to the instructional leadership role of the principal in helping 11th- and 12th-grade teachers adjust to the newly implemented Georgia Performance Standards and high-stakes testing. This study used qualitative-dominant…

The theoretical argument of the current research is that athletic departments have been effective in attaining their conflicting goals mainly because they have become highly effective in managing institutional rules. Neo-institutionalism (DiMaggio & Powell, 1991), loose coupling (Meyer & Rowan, 1977), and patterns of bureaucracy (Gouldner, 1954)…

Exhibits in informal science institutions, like science centers and museums, are often designed to help people learn, but research showing the immediate impact of experiences with exhibits on understanding is limited. This dissertation tested the hypothesis that the value of first-hand experience with an exhibit is not necessarily in its immediate…

In recent years, scores on the annual state reading and mathematics tests used for accountability have gone up in most states. These trends in state test scores do not always coincide, however, with trends on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the federally sponsored assessment that is administered periodically to…

In randomized controlled trials (RCTs) where the outcome is a student-level, study-collected test score, a particularly valuable piece of information is a study-collected baseline score from the same or similar test (a pre-test). Pre-test scores can be used to increase the precision of impact estimates, conduct subgroup analysis, and reduce bias…

This Action Research project and Pilot Study was designed and implemented to improve students' hypothetical thinking abilities by exploring the possibility that learning and playing the computer game Minesweeper may inherently help improve hypothetical thinking. One objective was to use educational tools to make it easier for students to learn the…

The Accelerated Reader program from Renaissance Learning Inc. is a popular program implemented in elementary and middle schools across the country that encourages students to read and monitors their progress in the program. Despite its widespread use and popularity, there have been some questions about the program's effectiveness at increasing…

In 2 studies, we investigated victim attributions (Study 1) and outcomes (Study 2) for workplace aggression and sexual harassment. Drawing on social categorization theory, we argue that victims of workplace aggression and sexual harassment may make different attributions about their mistreatment. In Study 1, we investigated victim attributions in…

A rigorous quasi-experiment tested the ameliorative effects of a sabbatical leave, a special case of respite from routine work. We hypothesized that (a) respite increases resource level and well-being and (b) individual differences and respite features moderate respite effects. A sample of 129 faculty members on sabbatical and 129 matched controls…

The Job Decision Factors Survey used policy capturing to measure the influence of 7 factors on job decisions. Data from 400 undergraduate students at a large university, 88% 18-25 years of age, 12% 25-65 years of age, 82% female, 54% White, 21% Asian, 10% Black, 10% Hispanic, 1% American Indian, were included in a regression analysis. Hypothesis…