Mastering mathematics is important for all students, not only because such success increases college and career options and prospects for future income, but also because mathematics literacy helps citizens and policy leaders to make sound judgments (NMAP, 2008). Research suggests that the rural achievement gap can be addressed with modifiable…

This article suggests two alternative statistical approaches for estimating student growth percentiles (SGP). The first is to estimate percentile ranks of current test scores conditional on past test scores directly, by modeling the conditional cumulative distribution functions, rather than indirectly through quantile regressions. This would…

Principals are responsible for supervising the educational and legal requirements for their students who have been identified with special education needs, yet they have not necessarily been specifically trained to do so. The research reviewed in this dissertation suggests that building administrators are often placed in situations in which they…

The purpose of this correlation study was to examine the perceptions of faculty-to-faculty incivility among nurse educators and its relationship to role satisfaction and workplace commitment in order to better understand the dynamics of these professionals. A purposeful convenience sample consisted of 114 volunteer participants from a population…

This review explores predictors and consequences of students' growth goals and growth mindset in school with particular emphasis on how correlational statistical methods can be applied to illuminate key issues and implications. Study 1 used cross-sectional data and employed structural equation modelling (SEM) to investigate the role of growth…

This paper introduces the generalized beta (GB) model as a new modeling tool in the educational assessment area and evaluation analysis, specifically. Unlike normal model, GB model allows us to capture some real characteristics of data and it is an important tool for understanding the phenomenon of learning. This paper develops a contrast with the…

Latent growth curve models with piecewise functions are flexible and useful analytic models for investigating individual behaviors that exhibit distinct phases of development in observed variables. As an extension of this framework, this study considers a piecewise linear-linear latent growth mixture model (LGMM) for describing segmented change of…

Minority female counselor educators are faced with numerous challenges. This qualitative study revealed that for female minority counselor educators, these challenges continue to negatively affect their professional and personal experiences. It is through operational wellness practices and optimal balance and functioning that minority female…

Based on Lord's criterion of equity of equating, van der Linden (this issue) revisits the so-called local equating method and offers alternative as well as new thoughts on several topics including the types of transformations, symmetry, reliability, and population invariance appropriate for equating. A remarkable aspect is to define equating…

Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is a common technique utilized in the development of assessment instruments. The key question when performing this procedure is how to best estimate the number of factors to retain. This is especially important as under- or over-extraction may lead to erroneous conclusions. Although recent advancements have been…

A method for examining common factor variance in multiple-component measuring instruments is outlined. The procedure is based on an application of the latent variable modeling methodology and is concerned with evaluating observed variance explained by a global factor and by one or more additional component-specific factors. The approach furnishes…

Whittaker, Chang, and Dodd compared the performance of model selection criteria when selecting among mixed-format IRT models and found that the criteria did not perform adequately when selecting the more parameterized models. It was suggested by M. S. Johnson that the problems when selecting the more parameterized models may be because of the low…

Minimum sample sizes of about 200 to 250 per group are often recommended for differential item functioning (DIF) analyses. However, there are times when sample sizes for one or both groups of interest are smaller than 200 due to practical constraints. This study attempts to examine the performance of Simultaneous Item Bias Test (SIBTEST),…

This dissertation investigates the statistical properties present within corpora of common practice music, involving a data set of more than 8,000 works spanning from 1650 to 1900, and focusing specifically on the properties of the chord progressions contained therein. In the first chapter, methodologies concerning corpus analysis are presented…

Value-added models (VAMs) have received considerable attention as a tool to transform our public education system. However, as VAMs are studied by researchers from a broad range of academic disciplines who remain divided over the best methods in analyzing the models and stakeholders without the extensive statistical background have been excluded…