This study was concerned with selecting a measure of scorer agreement for use with the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The simple percent of agreement and Cohen's kappa were compared. It was concluded that Cohen's kappa does not add sufficient information to make its calculation worthwhile. (Author/BW)

Two alternative procedures to Rogers' method of using control charts to display item statistics are discussed. The data itself determines limit and centerline values, thus permitting these values to be compared to any criterion difficulty level(s) deemed appropriate for a given set of test items. (Author/RL)

Significant control of efficiency and quality in delivering training is achieved by specifically defining the target trainee in terms of prerequisite abilities and learning needs (learning objectives), measuring those abilities by prerequisite testing and pretesting, and responding to differences in planned ways. (CT)

Discusses the results of two surveys among newspaper editors and readers about newspaper attributes and readers' interest. Results indicate a compromise caused by the marketing approach. (JMF)

An interrupted time-series design pooling 6 12-year series evaluated the long-term effects of a quality training intervention in a factory. Training positively affected quality of goods and dollar utility. Production process was an important contextual factor in assessing the effect size of the intervention. (SK)

When planning for a new facility, consideration of maintenance needs is crucial to successful design. Designing for maintenance needs involves considering such factors as the durability of materials used, the cost and lifecycle of the materials, and the flexibility of the maintenance staff. Stresses the importance of including key members of the…

The director of distance learning at Regis University in Colorado reflects on steps that must be taken to assure that university-level e-learning courses are the same quality as traditional courses. Key areas include: qualified faculty, teaching excellence, course design (with the added components of production as they apply to the application of…

Discusses the quality controls imposed on text and image data that is currently being converted from paper to digital images by the Patent and Trademark Office. The methods of inspection used on text and on images are described, and the quality of the data delivered thus far is discussed. (CLB)

Describes the Quality Improvement Program developed by Florida Power and Light's Nuclear Training organization that was awarded the Deming Application Prize for quality control. Training quality, team activities, training's role in business planning, customer involvement and evaluation, and continuous improvement of training are discussed. (LRW)

Discusses problems that arise when employees are asked to cooperate with each other to improve the company but are rewarded for individual performance. Offers solutions such as rewarding behaviors and offering a combination of salary plans. (JOW)

Discussion of data quality examines five approaches to defining data in the literature; considers criteria of adequacy; proposes a modeling activity; discusses the most important dimensions of data quality, including accuracy, precision and reliability, currentness, completeness, and consistency; and suggests further research. (Contains 44…

Recommends academic strategies to contribute to an issue of great interest in industry--workplace documentation. Describes strategies including contextualizing quality definitions, advocating use of multiple quality measures, conducting research to identify specific heuristics for defining and measuring quality in particular workplace contexts,…

Discusses the need for training in manufacturing and high-tech industries to keep up with the rapid changes taking place in operating technologies. Topics include the six standards of training evaluation; employee satisfaction; learning how to learn; quality improvement; front-end analysis; justifications for implementing retraining; and trainee…

Describes the development of a prototype system to analyze the ambiguity and complexity of cataloging rules to aid the quality control of cataloging standards. Highlights include AACR2 (Anglo-American Cataloging Rules, 2nd edition) rules, syntactic structure of rules, rule parsing, rule templates, relationships between rules, examples, and further…

Describes a two-pronged program at Dartmouth Medical School (New Hampshire) for teaching quality improvement to medical students: one component requires all students to participate in an improvement project at their community-based physician preceptor sites; the other component, an elective, has students develop an improvement plan for the…