In this research project we describe the legacy software landscape, its current state, and challenges associated with aging information systems and access to its data. We briefly describe the popularity of dynamic languages and how a specific dynamic programming language, Ruby on Rails (RoR or Rails), is used to create a system to extract data…

Teaching writing strategies based on writing processes has attracted wide attention as a method for developing writing skills. The writing process can be generally defined as a sequence of subtasks, such as planning, formulation, and revision. Therefore, instructor feedback is often given based on sequence patterns of those subtasks. For such…

Conceptual stances provide guidance to the mixed methods researcher as he or she makes decisions throughout the research process, including determining the dimensions of integration or levels at which mixing occurs. Only the dialectic conceptual stance specifically encourages mixing at the abstract paradigmatic level. This article outlines four…

Social media data (SMD) is driven by statistical and analytical technologies to obtain information for various decisions. SMD is vast and evolutionary in nature which makes traditional data warehouses ill suited. The research aims to propose and implement novel framework that analyze tweets data from online social networking site (OSN; i.e.,…

This methodological guidance article discusses the elements of a high-quality meta-analysis that is conducted within the context of a systematic review. Meta-analysis, a set of statistical techniques for synthesizing the results of multiple studies, is used when the guiding research question focuses on a quantitative summary of study results. In…

This article examines factors that could have influenced whether evaluations of U.S. government--funded foreign assistance programs completed in 2015 had considered unintended consequences. Logit regression models indicate that the odds of considering unintended consequences were increased when all or most of seven standard data collection methods…

Kindergarten readiness assessments are commonly used in schools nationwide. Prior work shows that the use of such assessments for class placement decisions has increased in recent years. This article uses the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study of 2011 to explore whether the use of readiness assessments for such purpose predicts differential…

A mixture extension of Samejima's continuous response model for continuous measurement outcomes and its estimation through a heuristic approach based on limited-information factor analysis is introduced. Using an empirical data set, it is shown that two groups of respondents that differ both qualitatively and quantitatively in their response…

Diagnostic accuracy studies often evaluate diagnostic tests at several threshold values, aiming to make recommendations on optimal thresholds for use in practice. Methods for meta-analysis of full receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves have been proposed but still have deficiencies. We recently proposed a parametric approach that is based…

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the nature and sufficiency of descriptive information included in open datasets and the nature of comments and questions users write in relation to specific datasets. Open datasets are provided to facilitate civic engagement and government transparency. However, making the data available does not guarantee…

Everyone knows what a school is, but the question of what constitutes an individual school is more complex than one would expect. Since not all individual records that appear in state or federal data files are schools, this creates a persistent challenge for educational researchers. In order to ensure that we have an accurate accounting of charter…

In regression analysis courses, there are many settings in which the response variable under study is continuous, strictly positive, and right skew. This type of response variable does not adhere to the normality assumptions underlying the traditional linear regression model, and accordingly may be analyzed using a generalized linear model…

There is growing interest in using measures of teacher applicant quality to improve hiring decisions, but the statistical properties of such measures are poorly understood. We present evidence on structured ratings solicited from teacher applicants' references. We find that the reference ratings capture only one underlying dimension of applicant…

Online networks, as digital images reflecting every aspects of real world especially under the current context of information technology, have become the most massive and opulent data source these days, where vast amount of information keeps being produced and transmitted. Their rapid expansion in scale and data volume draws wide attention and…

We used an unobtrusive approach, keystroke logging, to examine students' cognitive states during essay writing. Based on data contained in the logs, we classified writing process data into three states: text production, long pause, and editing. We used semi-Markov processes to model the sequences of writing states and compared the state transition…