Summarizes a study to identify preschool administrative and teacher variables predicting the frequency of parent-teacher communication. The sample consisted of 483 preschool teachers attending an early childhood institute. Results of multiple regression analyses indicated that administrative "center supports" contributed the most to…

Reports that studies of native and transfer students at a university indicated that lower division GPA and major were significant predictors of upper division GPA for both groups, but more so for transfers than for natives. States that, although race was not a significant predictor for transfers, it was the most significant predictor for native…

Phonological awareness reflects the strength of a child's ability to represent linguistic information cognitively at the phonological level. Although the role of phonological awareness in early reading decoding has been well documented, its relationship to other factors affecting reading decoding has yet to be fully examined. In this study, the…

Many important research hypotheses concern conditional relations in which the effect of one predictor varies with the value of another. Such relations are commonly evaluated as multiplicative interactions and can be tested in both fixed-and random-effects regression. Often, these interactive effects must be further probed to fully explicate the…

The study presented in this paper was conducted within the theoretical framework of the three-dimensional global-trait model of lexical knowledge proposed by [Henrikson, B. 1999. Three dimensions of vocabulary development. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 21, pp. 303-317], consisting of "breadth," "depth," and "receptive-productive"…

The difficulty in education to determine causality between means and ends brings various issues and variables to the discussion about the antecedents of school effectiveness. Although teachers' level of professional development is clearly among the factors influencing student outcomes, little is known about the extent to which teachers connect…

This study introduces three growth modeling techniques: latent growth modeling (LGM), hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), and longitudinal profile analysis via multidimensional scaling (LPAMS). It compares the multilevel growth parameter estimates and potential predictor effects obtained using LGM, HLM, and LPAMS. The purpose of this multilevel…

Organizational religiosity is analyzed with data from a national survey of faith-based social service coalitions (N = 656). Twenty-one items related to religious practices within these organizations result in three distinct factors: service religiosity, staff religiosity and organizational religiosity scales. Self-defined faith-based coalitions…

This article describes a validity study conducted among middle school students comparing self-reported sun safety behaviors from a diary with readings from ultraviolet (UV) monitors worn on different body sites. The UV monitors are stickers with panels that turn increasingly darker shades of blue in the presence of increasing amounts of UV light.…

A dichotomous dependent variable is used to determine a combination of variables that will predict group membership. Dichotomous variables are frequently encountered in multiple regression analysis. However, several textbooks question the appropriateness of using multiple regression analysis when analyzing dichotomous dependent variables. The…

An empirical method called Predicted Error Sum of Squares (PRESS) is advanced and studied. This method is used to examine the cross-validated prediction accuracies of some popular algorithms for weighted predictor variables. The weighting methods that were considered were ordinary least squares, ridge regression, regression on principal…

Actual data sets were used to illustrate how substantially different conclusions and implications can be drawn from alternate multiple regressions predicting academic achievement from the same set of variables measuring student background. Variables assessing students' socioeconomic status and geographic mobility, used to predict reading and math…

The issues and some proposed solutions regarding Follow Through (FT) site variability are examined with a review of developments in FT evaluation. The role of adjusted site means with differences within sponsors and between sponsors and background characteristics is discussed to determine whether adjusted means are the preferred measures of model…

This overview of both quantitative and qualitative methods of educational forecasting is introduced by a discussion of a general typology of forecasting methods. In each of the following sections, discussion follows the same general format: a number of basic approaches are identified (e.g. extrapolation, correlation, systems modelling), and each…

Develops a testing procedure based on a model including treatment effects on residual variances. (Author/RC)