Creating and maintaining a web server, particularly for a large organization, is both an art and a science. The science of link management, statistical analysis, and error redirection is only a part of what is required of web managers. Additional responsibilities include knowing the information needs of users; data owner support services; training…

Based on information from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, this report provides data and reports analytical findings on postsecondary education in Nebraska concerning enrollment, degrees awarded, institutional finance, and faculty salaries. Findings included: (1) total headcount enrollment in all state institutions in 1992 was…

This study investigated the appropriateness of Item Response Theory (IRT) models to analyze language test data. In a university second language institute, results of typical versions of tests of French as a Second Language (n=831 examinees) and of English as a Second Language (n=617 examinees) were subjected to non-linear factor analysis in…

This report examines the characteristics and first-year behaviors of beginning postsecondary students entering public 2-year, public 4-year, and private, not-for-profit 4-year institutions of higher education, based on data derived from the 1995-96 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study. The report begins with an essay that describes the…

The determinants and labor market consequences for immigrants of proficiency in speaking the dominant language (English in the United States and English of French in Canada) are explored, with focus on adult men using self-reported data from the 1980 and 1981 censuses of the United States and Canada, respectively. It is shown that the determinants…

This report presents statistical data and facts, covering a 10-year period, concerning college and university enrollment numbers, degrees conferred, faculty and staff status and compensation, financial status, and investments of Kentucky's higher educational institutions. Among the information revealed by the statistical data, which comprise over…

The purpose of this study was to improve both statistical and judgmental methods for detecting potentially biased test items in an attempt to examine the agreement between the results obtained with these methods. If greater agreement between methods can be achieved, test items can be more effectively screened using judgmental methods prior to…

This report presents results of statistical analysis of the 1993 federal "Survey on Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students in Postsecondary Education." Data were collected from 982 of the nation's 2-year and 4-year postsecondary institutions (Gallaudet University and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf were not included) and were…

This report provides a discussion of trends in minority student participation at colleges, statistical information on this topic, and a review of the trends and progress of initiatives at New Jersey's nine state colleges. Recommendations are provided for programs and approaches that will increase the likelihood that minorities will enter college…

The use of analyses of achievement test data, particularly longitudinal data, in a wide range of court cases bearing upon educational policy and practice is examined, with an emphasis on assessments of the educational progress of students. The main purpose of the project is to show that assessments of educational progress (i.e., student learning)…

In 1991, a study was undertaken to determine the relationship between stress and job satisfaction among community college faculty in Pennsylvania. All full-time faculty at the state's 14 two-year community colleges were surveyed using the Faculty Stress Index, the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire, and the Framingham Type A Scale. Selected…

This study provides a comparative effect study of the Computer Assisted Teaching and the 7E model of the Constructivist Learning methods on attitudes and achievements of the students in physics classes. The experiments have been carried out in a private high school in Diyarbakir/Turkey on groups of first year students whose pre-test scores of…

This paper describes a project in which faculty collaborated with two agencies to facilitate student learning about communication with elders. Data on student learning was collected via survey, focus groups, and reflective writing. Survey results showed that the five most important benefits students rated themselves as gaining from the…

The continued and increasing use of online training raises the question of whether the most effective training methods applied in live instruction will carry over to different online environments in the long run. Behavior Modeling (BM) approach--teaching through demonstration--has been proven as the most effective approach in a face-to-face (F2F)…

We describe the item modeling development and evaluation process as applied to a quantitative assessment with high-stakes outcomes. In addition to expediting the item-creation process, a model-based approach may reduce pretesting costs, if the difficulty and discrimination of model-generated items may be predicted to a predefined level of…