This dissertation presents two essays on econometric methods for program evaluation and policy choice. In Chapter 1, I develop a statistically optimal way of using data to make policy decisions when the performance of counterfactual policies is only partially identified. Specifically, I consider a class of statistical decision problems in which…

School psychologists use intelligence and academic achievement test scores to understand individual differences in abilities that may be directed towards learning and the learning that has already occurred. To make ethical and effective decisions regarding individualized educational programs and interventions, test users must understand the…

This study inquires ethical evaluation of teachers, investigating their moral reasoning to ethical decision making, in Turkey. Specifically three hypotheses were tested: Overall ethical awareness of teachers is high; Teachers will identify reasons for ethical evaluation related to philosophical values such as justice, deontology, utilitarianism,…

Two studies were conducted to validate the Chinese version of the Career Decision-Making Profiles (CDMP) questionnaire, a multidimensional measure of the way individuals make career decisions. Results of Study 1 showed that after dropping 1 item from the original CDMP scale, the 11-factor structure was supported among Chinese college students (N =…

Purpose: Much of the recent research on data-driven decision making in US schools has focused on standardized test scores while other forms of data in schools have gone largely unexamined as useful data, such as teacher-assigned grades. Based on the literature, the theory outlined in this paper is that grades, as data historically overlooked in…

Analysis of the pairwise preferences of pairs of gambling stimuli elicited from each of 40 chronic schizophrenic inpatients, 32 schizophrenic outpatients, and 33 siblings or parents of these patients indicates that choice behavior was usually determined by the expected value of the stimuli, with no significant differences among groups. (SLD)

A national questionnaire survey of 324 automotive fleet administrators, examining the effects of three stress variables (decisional ambiguity, conflict, and work overload) in the administrators' 17 decision areas, tested whether managerial stress is decision-specific. Individual-level correlations and aggregate-level multidimensional scaling…

This paper describes the methodology used to analyze interview data on school control structures in the Management Implications of Team Teaching (MITT) project. Project MITT looked at school decision issues and their control structures, and at the people making or being governed by those decisions, to test how types of school decisions are related…

The advantages of the Delphi Technique are that it relies on collective expert judgment, prevents the excessive influence in decision-making of those in positions of status, and encourages consensus. The technique consists of five steps: (1) asking experts to list items relevant to a topic; (2) returning the list to the participants and asking…

This paper describes the problem-solving behaviors of 12 mathematicians as they completed four mathematical tasks. The emergent problem-solving framework draws on the large body of research, as grounded by and modified in response to our close observations of these mathematicians. The resulting "Multidimensional Problem-Solving Framework" has four…

Evaluation of attributes of a subcompact car were combined in linear regressions predicting liking and purchase intention. Of two forms--raw scales and scales weighted by the importance attached to each attribute by each subject--unweighted evaluations proved more consistent and important predictors than those weighted by their saliency. (Author)

Compared equity integration and an input integration model in explaining equity judgments in personnel evaluation utilizing multidimensional input. Undergraduates apportioned merit raises between two hypothetical employees described by five sets of adjectives representing five input dimensions. Dissimilar dimensions followed the rules of input…

Multidimensional scaling and unfloding procedures were employed to identify the dimensions underlying perceptions of political figures and to predict subjects' voting preferences. (Author)

A newly developed performance standard-setting procedure, termed iterative judgmental policy capturing (JPC), is applicable to assessments composed of distinct multidimensional exercises. The procedure is described, and results are reported from the application of JPC in a study involving a panel of 20 teachers and 6 performance exercises. (SLD)

Similarity plays a central role in cognitive theories. Research has demonstrated that the similarity of a pair increases with its commonalities and decreases with its differences. These common and distinctive elements can take the form of parts of objects, relations between parts of properties of whole objects. Previous work has been unable to…