Development of new scales from test items usually requires several hundred cases in each of the defined groups. Application of multivariate techniques to existing test scales also encounters such problems as multicolinearity, combining ipsative with normative measures and ordinal with equal interval scales, differential prediction, and…

Educators designing procedures for identifying students as learning disabled are faced with serious technical difficulties. A student with a learning disability is one who "has a severe discrepancey between achievement and intellectual ability" in one or more designated areas. The methods of quantifying achievement, intellectual ability,…

A pilot project examined the effectiveness of computer assisted instruction (CAI) in teaching selected concepts of health and fitness: coronary risk, lifestyle, and nutrition as related to weight control. A convenience sample of 58 students from two Concepts of Health and Fitness classes were randomly assigned to two groups, both of which used…

Using an effort toward comprehension paradigm developed by P. M. Auble, J. J. Franks, and S. A. Soraci, Jr. (1979), the worry component of state test anxiety was related to long-term memory for sentence encoding conditions that involved comprehension, but low effort (embedded-cue) and comprehension-high effort (post-cue). A noncomprehension…

Six methods of equating Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) test scores for samples consisting of the usual groups of examinees and groups controlled for native language representation were evaluated in terms of scale stability. The equating methods included three item response theory (IRT) variants (fixed b's scaling, a one-parameter…

This paper reports the findings of a study set up to establish the impact of a particular scheme on the attendance and punctuality performance of a group of Basic Skills learners against the backdrop of various theoretical postulations on managing undesirable behavior. Data collected on learners' performance was subjected to statistical analysis…

The textbook is the center of the curriculum and syllabus in most classrooms; however, rarely does it provide enough information for learners to successfully acquire pragmatic competence. This paper reports on a qualitative and quantitative study of 8 English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks to determine…

In recent years, many states have implemented block scheduling in secondary schools. The purpose of this study was to examine the attitudes of agricultural educators in career and technical education at the beginning of the implementation of block scheduling and changes in their attitudes nine years later. Over the past nine years, teachers'…

The paper explores the differences in the relationship between educational background and income for black and white men in six different career areas. Previous research has assumed that the value of education is the same across all fields of work. In this study, the author analyzed educational and income data for 20,000 white men and 1,500 black…

Previous research has studied the effects of different methods of item option weighting on the reliability and concurrent and predictive validity of achievement tests. Increases in reliability are generally found, but with mixed results for validity. Several methods of producing option weights, (i.e., Guttman internal and external weights and…

To evaluate the accuracy of the 1970 census' occupational classification system, a comparison was made between that year's responses to census questions and the replies by the same population group to the 1972 Postcensal Manpower Survey (PMS). Each of these questionnaires relied on a different methodology; in the PMS the respondent classified…

Research using Social Security data to measure the effects of government manpower training programs on the earnings of participants is discussed. Previous studies employed a longitudinal set of Social Security summary earnings records of over 50,000 individuals who participated in Manpower Development and Training Act (MDTA) institutional training…

A national random sample of over 14,000 high school seniors was studied with respect to socio-cultural differences in responses to cognitive test items. Six different cognitive tests and ten different groups were analyzed. The tests were: vocabulary, picture-number, reading, letter-groups, mathematics, and mosaic comparisons. The groups were:…

This study is intended to improve analyses of the cost of education at both the national level and in international comparisons. Hitherto, international comparisons of educational costs have been hindered by the fact that governmental education budgets often include many noninstructional costs while excluding adult education costs and private…

A study undertaken in Arizona in 1975 was comprised of two parts, a pilot study and a comprehensive survey of high school students. It had as an overall objective to provide a data resource useful to all citizens and postsecondary institutions, to manpower and employment agencies, and to the state's high schools for program planning and…