A simple and readily understandable visual display of quantitative measures of academic efficiency and productivity is demonstrated in this article. This graphical construction facilitates annual comparisons of unit efficiency and productivity as well as an analysis of temporal changes in unit activity. By establishing a common framework upon…

This paper analyses technology-based instruction on data-analysis with box plots. Examples of instruction taken from the research literature inform a study of two classes of 17 year-old students (upper secondary) in which the mathematical relationships that their teachers targeted are distinguished as being, or not being, relevant to statistical…

This guide to the discovery, analysis, production, communication, and use of statistical information through graphic forms produced by a computer is designed to enable researchers to conduct their analyses and report research results more effectively. It is designed both for individuals with little knowledge about the use of statistical graphs or…

Forecasting from an educational planner's viewpoint, this study projects national and New York State revenues and expenditures until 1990. It is also intended to provide methodological guides for educational planners. Projections assume the continuation of long-term cyclical trends. Four basic procedures were used to project economic data: the…

The role of the coauthor relationship in the structure of informal communications networks within disciplines is explored, and the validity of coauthor graphs used to map these relationships is tested for both small and large databases. (CLB)

A Monte Carlo study determined the Inverse Scree Test's shape with various numbers of true groups and under different conditions of distribution shape and sample size. Six simulated distributions of 3,000 subjects each and 1 with 1,500 were created. Findings suggest relative distribution independence, number independence, and modest…

This paper describes an approach to item analysis that is based on the estimation of a set of response curves for each item. The response curves show, at a glance, the difficulty and the discriminating power of the item and the popularity of each distractor, at any level of the criterion variable (e.g., total score). The curves are estimated by…

A limited set of behaviors of three-, four-, and five-year-old children were observed in a day-care program designed to permit the children a maximum of freedom for environmental encounters. The sample consists of 20 children with day-care experience dating back to infancy and a group of 20 children (a contrast group) without prior day-care…

Demonstrates the application of multiple regression and double exponential elimination to patronage and circulation data collected at the School of Education at the University of Mississippi to examine the performance of its branch library. (six references) (MES)

Graphing data and/or results from quantitative studies have been noted in the social sciences and the field of education as a means toward employing solid methodological practices. The publication rate in the JCSD of six specified graphs was examined under two editor ships from 1999 to 2003 and 2004. Preliminary results from the review suggested…

This case study covers several exploratory data analysis ideas, the histogram and boxplot, kernel density estimates, the recently introduced bagplot--a two-dimensional extension of the boxplot--as well as the violin plot, which combines a boxplot with a density shape plot. We apply these ideas and demonstrate how to interpret the output from these…

In this article, the authors present a laboratory exercise in data collection and statistical analysis in biological space using clustered stomates on leaves of "Begonia" plants. The exercise can be done in middle school classes by students making their own slides and seeing imprints of cells, or at the high school level through collecting data of…

The reliability of visual inspection in single-case research was investigated by determining agreement among 5 judges visually inspecting 44 graphs depicting behavior from baseline to intervention. Agreement between visual inspection and statistical procedures was determined. Implications for single-case research are discussed. (SLD)

Students at the middle school level are expected to use appropriate tools and techniques, including mathematics and graphing, to analyze and interpret data and communicate experimental findings. Measures of central tendency (mean, median, and mode--see sidebar for definitions) are often used as descriptive statistics when students conduct…

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…