The number of project failures and those projects completed over cost and over schedule has been a significant issue for software project managers. Among the many reasons for failure, inaccuracy in software estimation--the basis for project bidding, budgeting, planning, and probability estimates--has been identified as a root cause of a high…

This study builds on earlier findings that clear choice of major and clarity of career direction is associated with university student retention. Data on business students' experience of university were correlated with data on intention to leave for two distinct major or career groupings--students who had committed themselves to a career-related…

In a mental health system where limited specialized services exist for individuals with intellectual disability (ID), patients using such services should be those with the most complex needs. The purpose of this study was to compare the profile of patients with ID served in a specialized unit (n = 40) to those in generic units (n = 141) within one…

Objective: Negative priming (NP) is the slowed response to a stimulus that was previously ignored. Response times in NP task conditions were compared with the interference provided by congruent/incongruent stimuli in a Stroop condition in the same task in children diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), their unaffected…

Various applications of item response theory often require linking to achieve a common scale for item parameter estimates obtained from different groups. This article used a simulation to examine the relative performance of four different item response theory (IRT) linking procedures in a random groups equating design: concurrent calibration with…

Even though the number of African American students has increased on college campuses, particularly Predominately White Institutions (PWIs), over the last century, they are less likely to graduate than their White counterparts are. They face discrimination, hostile environments, adversity, low or no social or mentoring support, and often feel…

This paper presents findings from the first national randomized study of the impacts of charter schools on student achievement, which included 36 charter middle schools across 15 states. The paper compares students who applied and were admitted to these schools through randomized admissions lotteries with students who applied and were not…

The main objective of this study was to compare pre-service English teachers' self-efficacy beliefs with the instructors' views of the teaching competence of these pre-service teachers. Thirty-nine student teachers (13 males and 26 females) and five female instructors participated in the study. For data collection, student teacher and instructor…

The No Child Left Behind act resulted in an increased reliance on large-scale standardized tests to assess the progress of individual students as well as schools. In addition, emphasis was placed on including all students in the testing programs as well as those with disabilities. As a result, the role of testing accommodations has become more…

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of theory of mind competence in inference processing in adolescents with Asperger syndrome (AS). We sought to pinpoint the level at which AS individuals experience difficulty drawing inferences and identify the factors that account for their inference-drawing problems. We hypothesized that this…

Three experiments were conducted to examine the effect of specificity at retrieval on the size of age differences in recollection. Participants encoded words in different contexts and were given recognition tests. Some of the test lists were constructed so that participants had to recollect specific aspects of the initial encoding events, whereas…

Ability tests play an important role in the assessment programs of many schools. However, the inferences about ability made from such tests presume that students understand the tasks they are attempting. Task familiarity can vary by student as well as by format. By design, nonverbal reasoning tests use formats that are intended to be novel. The…

Presenting college students, in a wide variety of content areas, with frequent announced and unannounced quizzes appears to correlate positively with enhanced test performance. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine if similar results can be achieved with high school students in a standard economics class. Based on a theoretical…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is a continuing and nationally representative assessment of what this nation's students know and can do. NAEP has often been called the "gold standard" of assessments because it is developed using the best thinking of assessment and content specialists, education experts, and…

Observed differences between Associate and Bachelor students are often justified by citing the comparative poorer performance of 2-year students that continue into 4-year programs. This research offers a different approach by investigating introductory-level management courses taught as a combined class at a regional campus of a state university.…