Negative reactions reflected in personal as opposed to educational issues are apparent in the teacher and student groups surveyed; sex differences in attitudes are not demonstrated although sex stereotyping is evident in both groups; and socialization issues are revealed in both groups relative to dehumanizing and isolating effects of computers.…

In August 2004, the WVDE asked the Appalachia Educational Laboratory at Edvantia, Inc. to evaluate the demonstration project, in order to meet the evaluation and reporting requirements set forth in the law. According to Fink (1993), baseline evaluation data allow for subsequent analyses of the effect or impact of a program. The purpose of this…

A study was conducted to evaluate inequalities in salary for all regular faculty, administrative, and staff employees with respect to gender and ethnicity at a major metropolitan research university. In all, there were 648 minorities in the study and 1,443 women. Three approaches were used to test for inequalities: (1) a multiple regression…

Using two specially constructed tests for synonyms and general knowledge, researchers examined the possibility of deciding which test items will produce expected sex-differentiated results by looking at test-item contents. They found stable sex differences but very limited possibilities of identifying the test items leading to those differences.…

A multitrait-multimethod matrix containing two methods of measuring 12 personality traits was analyzed and confirmatory factor analysis was applied to the data. Although unexplained variance remained, method factors and a general personality factor significantly improved the fit of a model containing only trait factors. (Author/RL)

This paper presents a chi square method for assessing bias in test items. In this procedure an unbiased item is defined as an item for which the probability of a correct response is the same for any person of a given ability level regardless of that person's ethnic group. (Author/CTM)

A reanalysis of research reported in the "Journal of Industrial Teacher Education" demonstrates a tendency among researchers to base interpretations of data entirely on the results of tests for statistically significant differences. The appraisal suggests that several of the published findings should be reviewed using additional data…

Two problems are addressed in relation to agricultural education research: (1) Is the Type I error rate affected when nonindependent multiple statistical tests are made? And (2) does statistical significance automatically mean that the results are of practical importance? (LRA)

Statistical significance and "abnormality" have been used as criteria for the evaluation of intra-individual subtest score differences. Shortcomings of these criteria are identified, and improved estimates of the true score differences are suggested. The applicability of the abnormality criterion to these improved estimates is reviewed.…

Reviews the role of statistical significance testing, and argues that dominance of such testing is dysfunctional because significance tests do not provide the information that many researchers assume they do. Possible reasons for the persistence of statistical significance testing are discussed briefly, and ways to moderate negative effects are…

In three experiments, the authors investigated whether statistical language influences readers' interpretations of research results. Although the authors argue that "significant" language changes should not be mandated for quantitative research studies in scientific journals, if such changes are mandated, then use of the term "statistical" is…

Goodness-of-fit (GOF) indexes provide "rules of thumb"?recommended cutoff values for assessing fit in structural equation modeling. Hu and Bentler (1999) proposed a more rigorous approach to evaluating decision rules based on GOF indexes and, on this basis, proposed new and more stringent cutoff values for many indexes. This article discusses…

Measures of clinical significance are frequently used to evaluate client change during therapy. Several alternatives to the original method devised by N. S. Jacobson, W. C. Follette, & D. Revenstorf (1984) have been proposed, each purporting to increase accuracy. However, researchers have had little systematic guidance in choosing among…

Little is known about researchers' understanding of confidence intervals (CIs) and standard error (SE) bars. Authors of journal articles in psychology, behavioral neuroscience, and medicine were invited to visit a Web site where they adjusted a figure until they judged 2 means, with error bars, to be just statistically significantly different (p…