In this article, the author highlights a recurrent issue related to the historical measurement and use of attendance data: The challenge of producing uniform and reliable records on school attendance. Comparing this issue in the late 1800s to nearly two centuries later, he observes that while the capacity for record keeping and analysis has…

Our previous work interpreted single-lognormal fits to inter-gaze distance (i.e., "gaze steps") histograms as evidence of multiplicativity and hence interactions across scales in visual cognition. Bogartz and Staub (2012) proposed that gaze steps are additively decomposable into fixations and saccades, matching the histograms better and…

Much of the literature on social class and language study in schools argues that for middle-class parents and their children, languages are chosen for their capacity to offer forms of distinction that provide an edge in the global labour market. In this paper, we draw on data collected from interviews with parents and children in middle-class…

Vanpaemel and Lee (2012) argued, and we agree, that the comparison of formal models can be facilitated by Bayesian methods. However, Bayesian methods neither precede nor supplant our proposals (Wills & Pothos, 2012), as Bayesian methods can be applied both to our proposals and to their polar opposites. Furthermore, the use of Bayesian methods to…

Steinley and Brusco (2011) presented the results of a huge simulation study aimed at evaluating cluster recovery of mixture model clustering (MMC) both for the situation where the number of clusters is known and is unknown. They derived rather strong conclusions on the basis of this study, especially with regard to the good performance of…

Secretary of Education Duncan (2010) lamented the state of U.S. education in 2010 after the release of the results from the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). He wrote: "Unfortunately, the 2009 PISA results show that American students are poorly prepared to compete in today's knowledge economy. President Obama has…

Humphry (this issue) deserves credit for drawing attention to the long-neglected fact that differences in item discrimination parameters are often due to empirical factors and not the product of random error components. In doing so, Humphry offers a psychometrically elegant, coherent, and practically important new model that is more flexible while…

In January 2010, the UCLA-based Civil Rights Project (CRP) released "Choice without Equity: Charter School Segregation and the Need for Civil Rights Standards." The study intended to report on, among other things, levels of racial segregation in charter schools across the United States. The authors use 2007-08 data from the U.S. Department of…

In their paper "Unique Characteristics of Diagnostic Classification Models: A Comprehensive Review of the Current State-of-the-Art," Andre Rupp and Jonathan Templin (2008) provide a comparative analysis of selected psychometric models useful for the analysis of multidimensional data for purposes of diagnostic score reporting. Recent assessment…

Tooley, Dixon and Gomathi maintain that private unrecognised unaided schools in Hyderabad, India, catering for children of the poor, provide a better level of education than do their government counterparts. We examine this contention and argue first that Tooley et al.'s conceptualisation of education and its benefits is flawed and second that the…

When gathering and presenting educational statistics, five principles should be considered. (1) The data must be accurate, valid, and complete. Limitations, weaknesses, margins of error, and levels of confidence should be clearly stated. (2) The data must include comparable information, sought in comparable ways, in comparable forms, from…

This description and comparison of the major economic statistical database services discusses such factors as public and proprietary data, value-added services, user training and support, data specialties, and pricing. (CLB)

Educational research would benefit if standards could be agreed for recording precisely what has been done in a research study, and if these records were available for scrutiny. Advantages claimed include better quality data, easier comparison with other studies, the possibility of analysis by others and greater credibility of findings. (BRR)

Presents the results of a comparative evaluation of four CD-ROM retrieval software packages using the Revised Richards-Brown CD-ROM Software Evaluation Model. CD Answer, SPIRS, KAware2, and ROMware are evaluated, and results indicate that SPIRS and CD Answer are the favored packages. (LRW)

Researchers have paid scant attention to the opportunities and the barriers associated with across-state study of college-transition policies, although the American states comprise a social system especially well suited for comparative analysis. What sorts of questions should researchers ask about college-transition policies and programs? How…