Examined open-ended production tasks in higher level testing in French-as-a-second-language courses in the United Kingdom. The article studied the effect of teachers' linguistic background, training, experience, and ability on their marking of students' oral language tests; the reliability of marking criteria; and the validity of assessing…

The background and rationale for the 2 tests are described and results of a norming and validation study involving 804 Mexican-American college freshmen in 5 border community colleges are reported. The results provide evidence that the DTES and VAT are reliable and effective for Mexican-American students, having overcome inadequacies of other…

This overview of the research process for the novice information retrieval (IR) researcher provides guidance on selecting a research question, choosing the type of test, defining variables, developing or using databases, finding and processing queries, assigning treatments to experimental units, collecting and analyzing the data, and presenting…

There are indications that the new technologies could have radical implications for conventional teaching and learning processes. It notes that, in reconfiguring how teachers and learners gain access to knowledge and information, the new technologies challenge conventional conceptions of both teaching and learning materials, and teaching and…

The NEAIR 2009 Conference Proceedings is a compilation of papers presented at the Baltimore, Maryland conference. Papers in this document include: (1) A Principle Components Analysis of The Determinants of Student Satisfaction at a Historically Black Institution (Tao Gong and Jacqueline V. Parham); (2) Assessing and Enhancing Graduates'…

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of problem-based active learning in science education on students' academic achievement and concept learning. In the study, both quantitative and qualitative research methods were utilized. Quantitative data were obtained via the pre/post-test, treatment-control groups test model. Qualitative data…

Higher education relies on student ratings to evaluate faculty teaching, partly because the alternatives (expert peer appraisals or objective performance criteria) are costly or unavailable. Because student ratings are crucial not only to improving instruction, but also in making or breaking faculty careers, it is important to assure that they…

In statistical terms, transfer rates require two components: a numerator that represents community college students who transfer and a denominator that approximates the pool of potential transfer students. The California Task Force adopted a set of criteria to judge the appropriateness of prospective pairs of numerators and denominators. Its form…

This study used data from 992 cases in 16 longitudinal studies of the Early Intervention Research Institute to evaluate five measures of family functioning: (1) Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale-III; (2) Family Support Scale; (3) Family Resources Scale; (4) Parenting Stress Index; and (5) Family Inventory of Life Events.…

This booklet is one of six texts from a workplace literacy curriculum designed to assist learners in facing the increased demands of the workplace. The booklet contains five sections that cover the following topics: (1) importance of reliability; (2) meaning of quality assurance; (3) historical development of quality assurance; (4) statistical…

The extent to which national performance on an achievement test battery changed over a 4-year period was studied, and the comparative performance of students in school districts taking the test series for the first time was compared with that of students in districts that had used the battery at least once in one or more grades. The seventh…

To compile its projections of future employment levels, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) combines the following five interlinked models in a six-step process: a labor force model, an econometric model of the U.S. economy, an industry activity model, an industry labor demand model, and an occupational labor demand model. The BLS was asked to…

The value-added model is presented as a method of assessing the impact of treatments in pretest-posttest quasi-experimental designs. The model yields a projection of treatment group performance at posttest time with no special treatment. The difference between the expected result and the actual outcome is "the value added," a measure of…

This paper summarizes the research on learning style based on responses to the Learning Style Inventory by 1,836 students in grades 1 through 12. Reliability analyses are included for each sub-scale for males and females based on factors determined by factor and content analysis. The intercorrelations are included for males and females within…

Using the basic principles of generalizability theory, a psychometric model for domain-referenced interpretations is proposed, discussed, and illustrated. This approach, assuming an analysis of variance or linear model, is applicable to numerous data collection designs, including the traditional persons-crossed-with-items design, which is treated…