Confirmatory factor analytic procedures are routinely implemented to provide evidence of measurement invariance. Current lines of research focus on the accuracy of common analytic steps used in confirmatory factor analysis for invariance testing. However, the few studies that have examined this procedure have done so with perfectly or near…

Imputation methods are popular for the handling of missing data in psychology. The methods generally consist of predicting missing data based on observed data, yielding a complete data set that is amiable to standard statistical analyses. In the context of Bayesian factor analysis, this article compares imputation under an unrestricted…

Curricular reform is a widespread trend among medical schools. Assessing the impact that pedagogical changes have on students is a vital step in review process. This study examined how a shift from discipline-focused instruction and assessment to integrated instruction and assessment affected student performance in a second-year medical school…

Commentaries regarding appropriate methods for researching professional development have been a frequent topic in recent issues of "Educational Researcher" as well as other venues. In this article, the authors extend this discussion by observing that randomized trials of specific professional development programs have not enhanced our…

The importance of sample size, although widely discussed in the literature on structural equation modeling (SEM), has not been widely recognized among applied SEM researchers. To narrow this gap, we focus on second language testing and learning studies and examine the following: (a) Is the sample size sufficient in terms of precision and power of…

This correlational study used standard multiple regression to determine if there was a relationship between the factors of cultural intelligence (metacognitive CQ, cognitive CQ, motivational CQ, and behavioral CQ) and transformational leadership in doctoral students. This study also sought to determine the best predictor of burnout by using a…

This study examined the relationship between school climate and student achievement ratings in urban school districts in five states (N = 230). Many educators view school climate and student achievement as separate considerations. However the results of this study suggest that climate and student achievement were highly related. In fact, the…

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) released proposed Science and Technology/Engineering standards in 2013 outlining the concepts that should be taught at each grade level. Previously, standards were in grade spans and each district determined the method of implementation. There are two different methods used…

Previous research implementing stratification on the propensity score has generally relied on using five strata, based on prior theoretical groundwork and minimal empirical evidence as to the suitability of quintiles to adequately reduce bias in all cases and across all sample sizes. This study investigates bias reduction across varying number of…

Reviewers of research reports frequently criticize the choice of statistical methods. While some of these criticisms are well-founded, frequently the use of various parametric methods such as analysis of variance, regression, correlation are faulted because: (a) the sample size is too small, (b) the data may not be normally distributed, or (c) The…

In the case of trials with nested data, the optimal allocation of units depends on the budget, the costs, and the intracluster correlation coefficient. In general, the intracluster correlation coefficient is unknown in advance and an initial guess has to be made based on published values or subject matter knowledge. This initial estimate is likely…

Learning about statistics is a lot like learning about science: the learning is more meaningful if you can actively explore. This fifth installment of "Explorations in Statistics" revisits power, a concept fundamental to the test of a null hypothesis. Power is the probability that we reject the null hypothesis when it is false. Four…

The purpose of this research is to examine eight of the different methods for computing confidence intervals around alpha that have been proposed to determine which of these, if any, is the most accurate and precise. Monte Carlo methods were used to simulate samples under known and controlled population conditions. In general, the differences in…

Multilevel modeling (MLM), also referred to as hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) or mixed models, provides a powerful analytical framework through which to study colleges and universities and their impact on students. Due to the natural hierarchical structure of data obtained from students or faculty in colleges and universities, MLM offers many…

In the presence of test speededness, the parameter estimates of item response theory models can be poorly estimated due to conditional dependencies among items, particularly for end-of-test items (i.e., speeded items). This article conducted a systematic comparison of five-item calibration procedures--a two-parameter logistic (2PL) model, a…