Practitioners of adult education have a long history of teaching for social change. They may, however, be uncomfortable using quantitative methods to assess the impact of their learning activities, or they might lack access to statistical analysis software. Quantitative methods help the practitioner determine whether behavioral or attitudinal…

Across all social science disciplines, but in particular public administration, there is a shared concern about the costs of using traditional random samples to generate data, and its impact on researchers' ability to engage in "quality" research. As a result of these costs, more academics, practitioners, and students are turning to…

The purpose of this article is twofold. The first is to provide evaluative information on the recovery of model parameters and their standard errors for the two-parameter item response theory (IRT) model using different estimation methods by Mplus. The second is to provide easily accessible information for practitioners, instructors, and students…

Good assessment is part of all good learning communities, and this article provides a useful set of best practices for learning community assessment planning: (1) articulating agreed-upon learning community program goals; (2) identifying the purpose of assessment (e.g., summative or formative); (3) employing qualitative and quantitative assessment…

Survey sampling is fundamentally an applied field. The goal in this book is to put an array of tools at the fingertips of practitioners by explaining approaches long used by survey statisticians, illustrating how existing software can be used to solve survey problems, and developing some specialized software where needed. This book serves at least…

This book explores the perspectives of experienced practitioners, sharing ideas about building and sustaining organizational strength through workforce development practices and systems. As the saying goes, a company's greatest resource is its people. When managers really believe that and work to develop organizational capabilities, productivity,…

Reviews a small, easy-to-use statistical package which offers a moderate but useful repertoire of procedures for IBM-PC microcomputers (such as record/group selection, one-/two-/multi-way frequence tables, descriptive statistics, and simple ANOVAs). User's manual, program operation, data files, and program accuracy/anomalies are considered. The…

Reviews an interactive statistical analysis package (designed to run on 8- and 16-bit machines that utilize CP/M 80 and MS-DOS operating systems), considering its features and uses, documentation, operation, and performance. The package consists of 40 general purpose statistical procedures derived from the classic textbook "Statistical…

Meta-analysis is a set of procedures used to quantify, integrate, and analyze the findings of a large number of research studies. The article describes the new statistical techniques used and provides an example of their application to data regarding gender differences in throwing velocity of children and adolescents. (Author/MT)

Reviews a computer-assisted learning package (available from CONDUIT) which includes an introduction to factorial experimental design, and the analysis of the main effects and interactions of two- and three-factor experiments. Indicates that it is a clearly thorough package putting over a limited idea in a very lucid manner. (JN)

Though clinical judgement is necessary for appropriate diagnosis and provision of services to learning disabled children, such judgement must be based on objective evidence. A statistical procedure for applying the severe discrepancy criterion dictated in federal regulations is suggested for objectifying learning disability diagnosis. (Author/DB)

Explores current trends in school enrollment, projected enrollment through 2000, and implications for educators. A new baby "boomette", beginning in 1973 and peaking in 1988, will increase school enrollments throughout the 1990s. After 1995, kindergarten enrollment will decline and secondary enrollment, now steadily declining, will…

Discusses the use of computers in teaching these courses at the Eindhoven University of Technology: (1) regression analysis; (2) generalized linear models; and (3) multivariate statistical methods. Students also use the computer for their final studies for validating statistical tests. (JN)

Describes a practical approach that teachers can use to check for test-item validity in test construction. The Kuder-Richardson Reliability Formula is used. Detailed instructions describe the procedure for evaluating items for difficulty and using statistical methods to determine test validity. (AM)

Explores the need to teach undergraduate sociology majors about statistical methods. Identifies student based obstacles to the learning of statistics. Offers an instructional model that includes (1) warm up sessions; (2) organizational models; (3) application exercises; (4) pattern recognition; and (5) sociological meaning. Recommends the model as…