This paper reviews some of the ways in which student success can be predicted in conventional and distance education. Predicting such success is particularly important for new students where the pre-course start information available is sometimes slight and withdrawal often occurs very early in a course. It suggests that, in such cases,…

I. Klugkist, O. Laudy, and H. Hoijtink (2005) presented a Bayesian approach to analysis of variance models with inequality constraints. Constraints may play 2 distinct roles in data analysis. They may represent prior information that allows more precise inferences regarding parameter values, or they may describe a theory to be judged against the…

Reports on a test of the applicability of the theory of General Scalability to documents in terms of transitivity, substitutability, and independence. Implications for the construction of test collections in information retrieval research are examined. (24 references) (EAM)

An evolved form of the Edwards and Beckworth (1989) model for probability selection for Scholastic Achievement Test takers using truncated normal distributions is presented. It is shown that the arguments of Holland and Wainer are not sufficient to reject this model. (SLD)

The statistics for divorce in the United States are alarming. Among the shouting there are voices that are not being heard: the children's. Empirical research has shown that the implementation of protective measures may increase the probability of a child becoming resilient in the face of divorce. This review of current literature is written to…

This report documents the results of a survey of 1,137 active-duty military families, including activated Reservists, regarding child care use. These survey data were analyzed to estimate the relationship between individual family characteristics and installation characteristics and the probability that the family uses any nonparental child care,…

In this report, we establish benchmarks of readiness for four common first-year college courses: English Composition, College Algebra, Social Science, and Biology. Using grade data from a large sample of colleges, we modeled the probability of success in these courses as a function of ACT test scores. Success was defined as a course grade of B or…

This essay investigates whether students who attend higher-quality schools commit fewer crimes. If so, improving school quality might be worth considering as an approach to reducing juvenile crime. The author finds some evidence that higher-quality schools are associated with lower probabilities of committing some types of crime. (Contains 1…

Reports information retrieval experiments comparing the performance of a probabilistic retrieval model that incorporates interdocument links with the simpler spreading activation strategy. Results indicated that the overall improvement obtained by including hypertext links in the retrieval model was low. (30 references) (EA)

Discusses the meaning of information in terms of Shannon's mathematical theory of communication and the concept of uncertainty. The uncertainty associated with the transmission of the signal is argued to have more significance for information science than the uncertainty associated with the selection of a message from a set of possible messages.…

Examines library availability studies for the past 50 years as a measure of library effectiveness and looks at their differing sources of study samples, methods for gathering data, categories of nonavailability, and data analysis. The Kantor branching technique developed in 1976 is described as the standard analysis method. (Author/EM)

Until recently, norms of experimental reasoning have lacked systematic theoretical development. Thus, it has been easy for psychologists like Tversky and Kahneman to misclassify certain human reasoning processes as being Pascalian and invalid, rather than as being Baconian and valid. (CP)

Presents research findings related to students' intuitive ideas about the concepts of chance to inform teachers how students form their concepts of probability and statistics. Discusses adolescents' conceptions of uncertainty, judgmental heuristics in making estimates of event likelihood, the conjunction fallacy, the outcome approach, attempts to…

Summarizes 19 papers presented at the Fourth International Conference on Teaching Statistics held in Morocco, July 1994. Papers presented were in five categories: (1) empirical studies on students' conceptions; (2) theoretical papers on teaching and learning; (3) assessment; (4) using computers in teaching probability and statistics; and (5) data…

The history of the journal "Esercitazioni Matematiche" (1921-43) edited by the "Circolo Matematico di Catania" for university students is described. A selection of proposed problems with some of their solutions is reported. (Author)