There is substantial variability in the degree to which the SAT and high school grade point average (HSGPA) predict first-year college performance at different institutions. This paper demonstrates the usefulness of multilevel modeling as a tool to uncover institutional characteristics that are associated with this variability. In a model that…

Four masters suitable for copying are given for models of solids: half-cube, square based oblique pyramid, irregular hexahedron, and square based right pyramid. Suggestions for the teacher are included. (MNS)

The way that graphs can be used to make calculations that are commonly used by institutional researchers is described using specific examples, and the technique of constructing computational graphs (and nomographs) is outlined. It is shown that once a calculation involving several variables has been represented by a computation diagram or a…

In three lectures, Benjamin D. Wright of the University of Chicago introduces the Rasch model and its basic concepts. The first lecture, March 30, 1994 discusses the model created by Georg Rasch, a Danish mathematician, which Dr. Wright initially saw as merely a way to make raw scores into measures. Eventually, the model developed into a…

Making connections becomes increasingly important as students proceed through middle school and high school. This book shows ways of embedding connective processes in instruction in grades 9-12. Problems invite mathematical modeling, unify diverse content, call for different representations, and encourage students to look back at their work to…

A description of the development and application of a hierarchical/binary model by which a curriculum may be analyzed to determine alternative instructional sequences given particular instructional objectives and limiting constraints forms the body of this report. The background of the project as part of an effort by the U.S. Navy Recruiting…

This videotape contains a series of presentations by Benjamin D. Wright of the University of Chicago about the Rasch model and measurement in testing. The first presentation is excerpts from a workshop held in 1974 for educators from the Portland (Oregon) Public Schools and the Oregon Department of Education. Dr. Wright's lectures were part of a…

Three examples are given in which students create their own Logo software to explore the topics of number patterns and operations, fractions, and decimal parts in measurement. (MNS)