Measuring change in an educational or psychological construct over time is often achieved by repeatedly administering the same items to the same examinees over time and fitting a second-order latent growth curve model. However, latent growth modeling with full information maximum likelihood (FIML) estimation becomes computationally challenging…

Respondent attrition is a common problem in national longitudinal panel surveys. To make full use of the data, weights are provided to account for attrition. Weight adjustments are based on sampling design information and data from the base year; information from subsequent waves is typically not utilized. Alternative methods to address bias from…

The deleterious effects of maternal depression on child emotional and behavioral development are well documented, yet many children exposed to maternal depression experience positive outcomes. The aim of this study was to identify psychosocial factors associated with the emotional-behavioral resilience of four-year-old children of first-time…

General chemistry is a gateway course that impacts the STEM trajectory of tens of thousands of students each year, and its role in the introductory curriculum as well as its pedagogical design are the center of an ongoing debate. To investigate the role of general chemistry in the curriculum, we report the results of a posthoc analysis of 10 years…

A great deal of recent methodological research has focused on two modern missing data analysis methods: maximum likelihood and multiple imputation. These approaches are advantageous to traditional techniques (e.g. deletion and mean imputation techniques) because they require less stringent assumptions and mitigate the pitfalls of traditional…

Concern and research involving the overrepresentation of African American students in the category of mild intellectual disability (MID) has existed for over four decades. Yet, little research focuses exclusively on the disproportionate representation of African American students at the secondary level. This study analyzed the National…

Using data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2, this article examines the relationships among three of Wehmeyer's components of self-determination (autonomy, empowerment, and self-realization) and subsequent reported access to postsecondary education in transitioning youths receiving Supplemental Security Income benefits. Results of…

In longitudinal education studies, assuming that dropout and missing data occur completely at random is often unrealistic. When the probability of dropout depends on covariates and observed responses (called "missing at random" [MAR]), or on values of responses that are missing (called "informative" or "not missing at random" [NMAR]),…

The capacity of Bayesian methods in estimating complex statistical models is undeniable. Bayesian data analysis is seen as having a range of advantages, such as an intuitive probabilistic interpretation of the parameters of interest, the efficient incorporation of prior information to empirical data analysis, model averaging and model selection.…

Missing data analyses have received considerable recent attention in the methodological literature, and two "modern" methods, multiple imputation and maximum likelihood estimation, are recommended. The goals of this article are to (a) provide an overview of missing-data theory, maximum likelihood estimation, and multiple imputation; (b) conduct a…

Missing data are a common practical problem for longitudinal designs. Time-series analysis is a longitudinal method that involves a large number of observations on a single unit. Four different missing-data methods (deletion, mean substitution, mean of adjacent observations, and maximum likelihood estimation) were evaluated. Computer-generated…

The application of multidimensional item response theory (IRT) models to longitudinal educational surveys where students are repeatedly measured is discussed and exemplified. A marginal maximum likelihood (MML) method to estimate the parameters of a multidimensional generalized partial credit model for repeated measures is presented. It is shown…