Structural equation models of the same construct collected on different occasions are evaluated in 2 studies involving the evaluation of 157 college instructors over 8 years and data for over 2,200 high school students over 4 years for the Youth in Transition Study. Results challenge overreliance on simplex models. (SLD)

Type I error rates for Yao's, James' first-order and second-order, and Johansen's tests of equality of mean vectors for two independent samples were estimated for various conditions defined by the degree of heteroscedasticity and nonnormality. Each procedure can be seriously nonrobust with exponential and log-normal distributions. (TJH)

Equating error was estimated using the same test with three linear equating methods in three paradigms--single-link equating; circular equating through a chain; and pseudo-circular equating, in which a test is equated to itself through equating chains. Over 31,000 Psychometric Entrance Test scores of college applicants in Israel were analyzed.…

Large sample standard errors of linear equating for the single-group design are derived without making the normality assumption. Two general methods based on the delta method of M. Kendall and A. Stuart (1977) are described. One method uses the exact partial derivatives, and the other uses numerical derivatives. Simulation using the beta-binomial…

Equating tests from different calibrations under item response theory (IRT) requires calculation of the slope and intercept of the appropriate linear transformation. Two methods have been proposed recently for equating graded response items under IRT, a test characteristic curve method and a minimum chi-square method. These two methods are…

A new method for estimating the parameters of the normal ogive three-parameter model for multiple-choice test items--the normalized direct (NDIR) procedure--is examined. The procedure is compared to a more commonly used estimation procedure, Lord's LOGIST, using computer simulations. The NDIR procedure uses the normalized (mid-percentile)…

Four methods for determining the dimensionality of a set of test items were compared: (1) linear factor analysis; (2) residual analysis; (3) nonlinear factor analysis; and (4) Bejar's method. Five artificial test data sets (for 40 items and 1500 examinees) were generated, consistent with the three-parameter logistic model and the assumption of…

The effect of changes in the achievement level of black high school students on their chances of attending postsecondary schools was assessed. Data from the High School and Beyond survey 1980 sophomore cohort were used to estimate the probability of attending two-year and four-year colleges for blacks and whites, given changes in black achievement…

Many multidimensional item response theory (IRT) models have been proposed. A comparison is made between the so-called full information models and the models that use only pairwise information. Three multidimensional models described are: (1) the compensatory model of R. D. Bock and M. Aitken (1981) using the computer program TESTFACT; (2) a model…

The impact of faculty unionization on faculty compensation, research contract revenues, student tuition and fees, and other financial considerations are examined in this report. The study uses multiple regression models to analyze the net impact of collective bargaining on a sample of over 100 union and nonunion institutions. Faculty compensation…

Two methods of interactive, computer-assisted testing methods for multiple-choice items were compared with each other and with conventional multiple-choice tests. The interactive testing methods compared were tailored testing and the respond-until-correct (RUC) item response method. In tailored testing, examinee ability is successively estimated…

The first panel of a three-year longitudinal study was conducted to investigate the process by which youth form career expectations. The study was designed around a cross-sectional path model of career expectations drawn from the sociological literature on status attainment and is based on differential equations in which all expectation variables…

Despite advances in common factor analysis, a review of 89 studies published in four selected journals between 1963 and 1976 indicated that behavioral scientists preferred principal components analysis, followed by varimax or orthogonal rotation. Resultant row sums of squares of factor matrices from principal component analyses of real data sets…

The question of whether test factor structure is indicative of the test item hierarchy was examined. Data from 1,000 subjects on two sets of five bivalued Law School Admission Test items, which were analyzed with latent trait methods of Bock and Lieberman and of Christoffersson in Psychometrika, were analyzed with an ordering-theoretic method to…

The purpose of the study was to develop a linear programming model to be used for prediction, test the accuracy of the predictions, and compare the accuracy with that produced by curvilinear multiple regression analysis. (Author)