A survey of institutions concerning their reporting of data on the Higher Education General Information Survey and specifically examining the differences in definitions and calculations among reporting institutions, confirmed suspected problems of comparability of information. The impact of these differences on data interpretation is discussed.…

Describes study designed to determine whether seventh-grade students classified as field dependent or independent would respond to computer assisted instructional options in different ways. Chi-square analysis reveals both groups showed similar pattern options use except in the case of additional expository examples where field-dependent students…

The proposed theory provides a basis for both measuring and correcting rater stringency error in some grossly incomplete rating data matrices. The theoretical model fits ratings made by faculty and resident physicians of student clinical performance in each of three junior year medical student cohorts better than alternative models. (Author)

Examines the effects of three self-pacing procedures on student withdrawal rate, rate of progress, final examination performance, and attitude in a personalized system of instruction for undergraduate students in an introductory speech course. Benefits of reducing student procrastination are discussed in light of the study's results. (Author/MBR)

Model checking is a crucial part of any statistical analysis. As educators tie models for testing to cognitive theory of the domains, there is a natural tendency to represent participant proficiencies with latent variables representing the presence or absence of the knowledge, skills, and proficiencies to be tested (Mislevy, Almond, Yan, &…

In recent years, West Virginia high school students have improved their performance on the ACT exam and have been steadily approaching the national average on ACT composite scores. In 2001, the gap between West Virginia test-takers and the national average was eight-tenths of a point. As of 2005, the gap was at six-tenths of a point.…

This report identifies student characteristics--demographic and life-stage factors--which influence successful completion of vocational education and training (VET) subjects. It finds the likelihood of passing is significantly reduced for people who are Indigenous, have a disability, are of non-English speaking background, are unemployed or are…

During the 2000-2001 school year, an 18-month evaluation of Ohio's Phonics Demonstration Program (PDP) was conducted by the same evaluation team that had conducted a similar evaluation in 1997. In addition to evaluating phonics instruction in PDP schools, the evaluation also addressed the preparation of teachers for reading/phonics instruction in…

The Modern Language Aptitude Test (MLAT) was part of a project examining biographical, motivational, attitudinal, personality, and cognitive aptitude variables in 1,000 adult students preparing at the Foreign Service Institute for overseas assignments, with various subsamples completing different instruments. Data were analyzed using correlation,…

In March 1996, the Consortium on Chicago School Research (CCSR) proposed to evaluate the Chicago Annenberg Challenge's (CAC) newly funded reform efforts in the Chicago public schools. The evaluation aimed to understand how schools involved in CAC efforts developed as organizations and, in turn, how these developments benefited students. The study…

This report contains papers presented at the 2004 annual NCES Summer Data Conference. Discussions and presentations dealt with such topics as measuring school efficiency, analyzing the return on education investment, calculating education costs per student, and assessing the financial condition of school districts. The following papers are…

This report provides the annual budget for Oakton (Illinois) Community College's fiscal year 1997. Following prefatory matter, the report is comprised of an introduction section, budget section, statistics section, and appendix section. The introduction section includes a district organization chart, goals and objectives, financial outlook,…

An experiment compared the tagging of two languages: Czech, a highly inflected language with a high degree of ambiguity, and English. For Czech, the corpus was one gathered in the 1970s at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences; for English, it was the Wall Street Journal corpus. Results indicate 81.53 percent accuracy for Czech and 96.83 percent…

In an attempt to measure faculty involvement in college governance at historically black colleges and universities (HCBUs),a study was conducted in fall 1996 at a private, historically black institution in Alabama. Questionnaires, with 25 Likert-type scale items, were distributed at a faculty senate meeting; the response rate was 79 percent…

This study assessed the influence of class size on the change in student computer attitudes after the completion of a 16-week computer literacy course. The sample consisted of 317 students enrolled in 15 sections of computer literacy courses at a university in the fall of 1993. Class size varied from 16 to 178. The dependent variable was the…