Techniques for applying mathematical concepts in the real world: six rarely taught but crucial tools for analysis, research, and problem-solving. Many young graduates leave school with a solid knowledge of mathematical concepts but struggle to apply these concepts in practice. Real scientific and engineering problems are different from those found…

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…

This guide describes a five-step collaborative process that educators can use with other educators, researchers, and content experts to write or adapt questions and develop surveys for education contexts. This process allows educators to leverage the expertise of individuals within and outside of their organization to ensure a high-quality survey…

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 methodological brief is designed to provide both program operators and researchers with practical advice about how to assess a program's implementation and impact. Adapted from an article that first appeared in "The Handbook of Youth Mentoring" (DuBois and Karcher, ed. 2005), the brief focuses on the evaluation of mentoring programs, but the…

Diagnostic assessment is currently an active research area in educational measurement. Literature related to diagnostic modeling has been in existence for several decades, but a great deal of research has been conducted within the last decade or so, especially within the last five years. The author summarizes the key components in the application…

In this article, we use a recent Manitoba child custody case to provide a legal and ethical account of the notion of the best interests of the child. We explore the tension between the best interests of the child and parental rights to expression of a racist nature. We consider how the interests of different actors--the state, parents and…

Describes a modified version of the tree diagram used to make probability more meaningful. (MKR)

This paper presents a method designed to assist practitioners in the interpretation of the practical significance of a statistically significant logistic regression coefficient is presented. To avoid the interpretation problems encountered when using the traditionally reported change in either the log odds or odds values, this method centers the…

This publication presents estimates of drug-related emergency department (ED) episodes from the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) from 1994 through the first half of 2001. DAWN is an ongoing, national data system that collects information on drug-related visits to EDs from a national probability sample of hospitals. This publication marks a major…

Applies elementary concepts of probability to a hotly debated question in football. Shows that the probability of winning is the same either way but the probability of losing is greater under the one-first strategy. (MKR)

Presents a mathematics problem on probability and matrices placed in a context with insects. Provides an overview, prerequisites, materials needed, and worksheets. (ASK)

Discusses an old and quite surprising musical example that provides good challenges in probability theory ranging from practical routine computations to fundamental and philosophical ones, and extended with the engineering design task of generating random numbers. (ASK)

This booklet suggests activities that reflect findings from recent educational research on curriculum, assessment, and instruction, as well as the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Standards pertaining to probability and statistics. Each teacher's guide for the 13 hands-on activities includes objectives stemming from NCTM…

Simple, classroom-tested probability activities that capture students' interest, develop critical thinking skills, and reinforce addition facts are suggested. All activities involve investigating the probabilities of the sums that come up when two dice are tossed. (MT)