Obtaining reliable and timely estimates of migration flows is critical for advancing the migration theory and guiding policy decisions, but it remains a challenge. Digital data provide granular information on time and space, but do not draw from representative samples of the population, leading to biased estimates. We propose a method for…

The social relations model (SRM) is a mathematical model that can be used to analyze interpersonal judgment and behavior data. Typically, the SRM is applied to one (i.e., univariate SRM) or two variables (i.e., bivariate SRM), and parameter estimates are obtained by employing an analysis of variance method. Here, we present an extension of the SRM…

Modeling and argumentation are two important scientific practices students need to develop throughout school years. In this paper, we investigated how middle and high school students (N = 512) construct a scientific argument based on evidence from computational models with which they simulated climate change. We designed scientific argumentation…

Contemporary teaching and learning approaches expect students--at any level of education--to be active producers of knowledge. This leads to the need for creation of instructional strategies, learning environments and tasks that can offer students opportunities for active learning. Research argues that one of the most meaningful and engaging forms…

Conjoint choice experiments are used widely in marketing to study consumer preferences amongst alternative products. We develop a class of choice models, belonging to the class of Poisson race models, that describe a "random utility" which lends itself to a process-based description of choice. The models incorporate a dependence structure which…

Current descriptions of results from hierarchical linear models (HLM) and hierarchical generalized linear models (HGLM), usually based only on interpretations of individual model parameters, are incomplete in the presence of statistically significant and practically important "slopes as outcomes" terms in the models. For complete description of…

The statistician has n independent estimates of a parameter he knows is positive, but, as is the case in components-of-variance problems, some of the estimates may be negative. If the n estimates are to be combined into a single number, we compare the obvious rule, that of averaging the n values and taking the positive part of the result, with…

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…

The norm-referenced score scale used by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) is described. The usefulness of standardized scores is explained by a simple numerical example, and the formulas and computations are shown for calculating a mean, a standard deviation, and a deviation or z score. The need for a representative sample is…

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) commissioned the papers in this publication to address advances in measuring education inflation and adjusting for it, as well as to examine the emergence of a new focus on school spending, rather than school district spending, as well as new, private sources of funding for public education, and…