There is a distinct divide between theory and practice in American science education. Research indicates that a constructivist philosophy, in which students construct their own knowledge, is conductive to learning, while in many cases teachers continue to present science in a more traditional manner. This study sought to explore possible…

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine the impact that a teacher-guided library selection program had on overall reading scores and how this program may or may not promote reading improvement of fourth-grade students at a small suburban school in western New York. Forty fourth graders were used as the sample population, which was…

This study evaluated the predictive validity of two preemployment screening devices--the Urban Teacher Perceiver Interview and the Academic Skills Assessment portion of the Praxis Series test--as used by an urban high-need and hard-to-staff school district. Specifically, we compared predictor scores with subsequent teacher assessment scores…

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which a non-traditional strength training program will impact the health-related fitness of youth. Researchers hypothesized that the strengthening program would positively affect the fitness outcomes. Participant physical education classes incorporated strengthening exercises three days…

This article investigates budget monitoring and control in township schools in South Africa. The enactment of the Schools Act 1996 revolutionized school financial management in South Africa, making it part of the drive for democratic school governance. School governing bodies had to be established, whose responsibility it became to manage finances…

Effect sizes (e.g., Cohen's d, Glass's [delta], [[eta] [squared]], adjusted [R [squared]], [[omega] [squared]]) quantify the extent to which sample results diverge from the expectations specified in the null hypothesis. The present article addresses 5 related questions, First, is the advocacy for reporting and interpreting effect sizes part of the…

It is a false, but common, belief that statistical significance testing evaluates result replicability. In truth, statistical significance testing reveals nothing about results replicability. Since science is based on replication of results, methods that assess replicability are important. This is particularly true when multivariate methods, which…

Research findings may be more publishable if significant results are reported. This type of publication bias would increase the likelihood of "chance" relationships being disseminated. The implications of these assumptions are empirically investigated in a correlational analogue study. (Author)

For the Shine-Bower single-subject ANOVA the numerator and demoninator of all F tests based on the Shine-Bower error term are independent of each other. The same property holds for all such tests in the Shine Combined ANOVA except for the test for the trial by subject interaction. (Author/RC)

A test is developed for hypotheses about the grand mean in the analysis of variance, using the known relationship between the t distribution and the F distribution with 1 df (degree of freedom) for the numerator. (Author/RC)

The Koppa coefficient is a measure of association between two variables which have been measured dichotomously. Significance tests for comparing Koppa coefficients from multiple samples are presented. (JKS)

The purposes of this paper are to identify common errors made by researchers when dealing with reliability coefficients and to outline best practices for reporting and interpreting reliability coefficients. Common errors that researchers make are: (1) stating that the instruments are reliable; (2) incorrectly interpreting correlation coefficients;…

The practical significance, usefulness, and generalizability of research have for years hinged on a finding of statistical significance. Voices of reform have called for the use of effect sizes, confidence intervals, and meta-analytic synthesis of research as a way to judge the practical significance and generalizability of a discovery. This paper…