The two studies reported examined the validity of several Evaluation/Survey Service (ESS) surveys for accurately reflecting changes in students' perceptions resulting from changes made by an institution in its policies, programs, services, or environment. In study 1, personnel from nine postsecondary institutions identified items on various ESS…

DIMTEST is a statistical test procedure for assessing essential unidimensionality of binary test item responses. The test statistic T used for testing the null hypothesis of essential unidimensionality is a nonparametric statistic. That is, there is no particular parametric distribution assumed for the underlying ability distribution or for the…

Whether item response theory (IRT) is useful to the small-scale testing practitioner is examined. The stability of IRT item parameters is evaluated with respect to the classical item parameters (i.e., p-values, biserials) obtained from the same data set. Previous research investigating the effect of sample size on IRT parameter estimation has…

The Walsh and Carballo evaluation of the effectiveness of transitional bilingual education programs in five Massachusetts communities, has the following flaws: (1) the sample of school districts studied suffered from "self-selection bias"; (2) the sample does not include a single large, urban school district; (3) the student samples…

This document contains testimonies and prepared statements from the Congressional hearing called to examine the difficulties associated with the lack of reliable demographic data for use in planning appropriate assistance to "special populations" of older Americans, including minorities, persons with disabilities, the rural elderly,…

The use of meta-analysis in industrial and organizational psychology has become quite common. Unfortunately, the understanding and research necessary to ensure appropriate application of the technique have not been as widespread. As part of a larger study, a content analysis of meta-analyses from the industrial and organizational psychological…

Findings and methodological problems of a survey on financial support for humanities in higher education are discussed. Usable data were gathered from 351 of 671 Higher Education Panel member institutions. Two weighting methodologies were employed. The conventional method assumed that nonrespondents were similar to respondents, whereas a…

When criterion-referenced tests are used to assign examinees to states reflecting their performance level on a test, the better known methods for determining test length, which consider relationships among domain scores and errors of measurement, have their limitations. The purpose of this paper is to present a computer system named TESTLEN, which…

A study was made to ascertain how large a sample is needed to make media effectiveness decisions which are generalizable to the total educable mentally handicapped (EMH) population. The method employed in the study involved pretesting and posttesting a sample of 70 primary and intermediate EMH children on the content of a filmstrip. Statistical…

This report develops the sample design for evaluating five Federal manpower programs in terms of their effects upon trainees' incomes. The study involves a large 10-city sample of trainees in Job Corps, Neighborhood Youth Corps, Job Opportunities in the Business Sector, and Manpower and Development Act Institutional Training Programs (New Careers…

This paper presents 11 statistical procedures which test the equality of m coefficient alphas when the sample alpha coefficients are dependent. Several of the procedures are derived in detail, and numerical examples are given for two. (Author/LMO)

This report examines aspects of the kindergarten experience through a national profile of teachers of the kindergarten class of 1998-99 in the United States. It presents data collected from questionnaires completed by 3,102 kindergarten teachers participating in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K). It…

Much of the literature on random-digit-dial (RDD) response rates focuses on the benefits and drawbacks of various screening and sampling procedures. The common assumption is that enumeration is more invasive, leading to lower response rates, but there are concerns about population coverage and self-selection with other methods. When the target…

Few research studies have examined the use of student ratings of instructors from the standpoint of their ability to be interpreted and their subsequent usefulness. This study examined the effects of a training session conducted by experts in the field of student ratings of instruction. The first question was to determine the knowledge, skills,…

Differences between means, variance, and correlation parameter estimates from a full school sample and samples restricted by parental consent were studied with 1,609 students at continuation high schools and 1,192 at traditional high schools. Sample bias due to consent policies may not be a substantive problem, especially if a telephone consent…