Violations of normality and homogeneity are common in educational data. When this occurs, the use of parametric statistics may be inappropriate. A generalized form of nonparametric analyses based on the Puri and Sen L statistic provides an alternative approach. Using a chi-square distribution, this technique is easy to apply and has significant…

Despite the fact that third parties are present during a substantial amount of face-to-face interviews, bystander influence on respondents' response behavior is not yet fully understood. We use nine waves of the German Family Panel "pairfam" and apply fixed effects panel regression models to analyze effects of third-party presence on…

Most current statistics courses include some instruction relevant to causal inference. Whether this instruction is incorporated as material on randomized experiments or as an interpretation of associations measured by correlation or regression coefficients, the way in which this material is presented may have important implications for…

The detection of differential item functioning (DIF) is important in psychological and behavioral sciences. Standard DIF detection methods perform an item-by-item test iteratively, often assuming that all items except the one under investigation are DIF-free. This article proposes a Bayesian adaptive Lasso method to detect DIF in graded response…

Research suggests teachers have positive motivational and emotional orientations regarding statistics but little statistical knowledge. How does this fit together? Since teachers' professional competence in statistics has not been well explored, we asked 88 in-service mathematics teachers about their orientations regarding teaching statistics and…

Oral language development is a key outcome of elementary school, and it is important to identify factors that predict it most effectively. Commonly researchers use ordinary least squares regression with conclusions restricted to average performance conditional on relevant covariates. Quantile regression offers a more sophisticated alternative.…

A new two-sample test for comparing variability measures is proposed. To make the test robust and powerful, a new modified structural zero removal method is applied to the Brown-Forsythe transformation. The t-test-based statistic allows results to be expressed as the ratio of mean absolute deviations from median. Extensive simulation study…

Recent research provides evidence that an intersectional approach to defining reference and focal groups results in a higher percentage of comparisons flagged for potential DIF. The study presented here examined the generalizability of this pattern across methods for examining DIF. While the level of DIF detection differed among the four methods…

Using data on students at a Canadian business school, this article studies the effect of homework assignments and in-class quizzes on exam performance. Based on a difference-in-difference approach, assignments had a statistically discernible positive impact on exam grades for the overall sample. When broken down by gender, assignments had a…

The use of infographics for presenting data in the media and on the Internet has become a widespread phenomenon. This study examines how well undergraduates interpret the mean when presented in infographic, their attitudes towards the misuse of statistics, and their perceptions of their knowledge and use of statistics. The infographic was intended…

In 1999-2000, business students borrowed substantially less to pay for their educations than nonbusiness students. By 2011-2012 this difference had disappeared. The authors describe changes in tuition, grants, incomes, and choice of institution type (public, private not-for-profit, or private for-profit) to help explain this observation. They find…

Technology is becoming an integral tool in the classroom and can make a positive impact on how the students learn. This quantitative comparative research study examined gender-based differences among secondary Advanced Placement (AP) Statistic students comparing Educational Testing Service (ETS) College Board AP Statistic examination scores…

Purpose: The present study aims to investigate the effects of a number of demographic and academic factors, such as gender, age, nationality (Emirati vs non-Emirati), high school major (arts vs science) and high school score, on the academic performance -- measured by overall grade point average -- of undergraduate students majoring in statistics…

Supplemental Instruction (SI) is a program that seeks to improve student success by targeting classes with high failure rates, as defined with a failure percentage of 30% or more. It is organized by an administrative SI supervisor who supervises SI leaders, which are students that have successfully completed the courses that they have been…

Background: In examining associations of sexual orientation, school connectedness (SC), and depression, no studies have used a continuum of sexual orientation. Additionally, no study has examined whether individuals with higher SC within subgroups of the continuum of sexual orientation are protected from symptoms of depression when compared to…