There is a strong trend in policy-making circles for strategic, systemic, and large-scale interventions. Although such trends make sense in terms of economy of scale and scope, the political will necessary for making these large-scale interventions a reality is often lacking, and the problem of the transferability of interventions from one local…

The authors generated exact probability distributions for sample sizes up to 35 in each of three groups ("n" less than or equal to 105) and up to 10 in each of four groups ("n" less than or equal to 40). They compared the exact distributions to the chi-square, gamma, and beta approximations. The beta approximation was best in…

The main goal of this research is to design, implement, and evaluate a novel explanation method, the hierarchical explanation method (HEM), for explaining Bayesian network (BN) inference when the network is modeling a population of conditionally independent agents, each of which is modeled as a subnetwork. For example, consider disease-outbreak…

Research indicated leadership played a key role in successfully implementing professional learning communities (PLCs). There has been little research on pragmatic approaches to developing PLC leaders. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the Gene School District's two-part PLC leader development: PLC Institute and ongoing…

Children represent the future of mankind and their safety, well-being, and permanency are goals of the Department of Health and Human Services. The Department of Health and Human Services is the primary funding source for child welfare and protection in the United States; their requirements, rules, and laws must be upheld and understood by every…

Keyword search is a prominent data retrieval method for the Web, largely because the simple and efficient nature of keyword processing allows a large amount of information to be searched with fast response. However, keyword search approaches do not formally capture the clear meaning of a keyword query and fail to address the semantic relationships…

Single case designs (SCDs) are short time series that assess intervention effects by measuring units repeatedly over time both in the presence and absence of treatment. For a variety of reasons, interest in the statistical analysis and meta-analysis of these designs has been growing in recent years. This paper proposes modeling SCD data with…

Organizations depend extensively on Information Technology professionals to drive and deliver technology solutions quickly, efficiently, and effectively to achieve business goals and profitability. It has been demonstrated that professionals with experience specific to the company are valuable assets, and their departure puts technology projects…

Curriculum-based measurement (CBM) is a system of assessment used to screen for students at risk for poor learning. CBM benchmark screening assessments are typically administered to all students in the fall, winter, and spring, and these data are frequently used by researchers to model and perhaps explain within-year growth. Modeling growth with…

This study examines the perceptions of faculty members regarding conflict experiences with administrators. It is driven by the question, "To what extent are faculty perceptions of positive and negative outcomes of faculty-administrator conflict associated with domain, nature and disciplinary context of the conflict," where domain refers…

Calibration and equating is the quintessential necessity for most large-scale educational assessments. However, there are instances when no consideration is given to the equating process in terms of context and substantive realization, and the methods used in its execution. In the view of the authors, equating is not merely an exhibit of the…

We offer an introduction to the five papers that make up this special section. These papers deal with a range of the methodological challenges that face researchers analyzing fMRI data--the spatial, multilevel, and longitudinal nature of the data, the sources of noise, and so on. The papers all provide analyses of data collected by a multi-site…

Although raters can be trained to evaluate the lexical qualities of student essays, the question remains as to what extent raters follow the "lexis" scale descriptors in the rating scale when evaluating or rate according to their own criteria. The current study examines the extent to which 27 trained university EFL raters take various lexical…

This paper and the accompanying tool are intended to complement existing supports for conducting power analysis tools by offering a tool based on the framework of Minimum Detectable Effect Sizes (MDES) formulae that can be used in determining sample size requirements and in estimating minimum detectable effect sizes for a range of individual- and…

Quantitative skills are an important competency for undergraduate biology students and should be incorporated early and frequently in an undergraduate's career. Community colleges (CCs) are responsible for teaching introductory biology to a large proportion of biology and prehealth students, and quantitative skills are critical for their careers.…