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…

There is a growing body of evidence indicating that people often overestimate the similarity between characteristics of random samples and those of the populations from which they are drawn. This paper: reviews studies that have attempted to determine whether the basic heuristic employed in thinking about random samples is passive and descriptive…

The influences of class size and the number of students completing surveys on faculty and course ratings were studied. For classes of 30 or more, a 50 percent response rate gives an acceptable indication of rating, while for a class of less than 30, about 80 percent return is needed. (Author/SW)

Demonstrates a statistically valid method allowing students to explore randomization. Described are two examples: counting techniques for a small set of data and simulation for a large sample. (YP)

A manual on sampling is presented to assist audit and program reviewers, project officers, managers, and program specialists of the U.S. Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA). For each of the following types of samples, definitions and examples are provided, along with information on advantages and disadvantages: simple random sampling,…

The National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) is a large-scale, national longitudinal study designed and sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), with support from other government agencies. Beginning in the spring of 1988 with a cohort of eighth graders (25,000) attending public and private schools across…