The use of analyses of achievement test data, particularly longitudinal data, in a wide range of court cases bearing upon educational policy and practice is examined, with an emphasis on assessments of the educational progress of students. The main purpose of the project is to show that assessments of educational progress (i.e., student learning)…

In 1991, a study was undertaken to determine the relationship between stress and job satisfaction among community college faculty in Pennsylvania. All full-time faculty at the state's 14 two-year community colleges were surveyed using the Faculty Stress Index, the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire, and the Framingham Type A Scale. Selected…

This paper describes a project in which faculty collaborated with two agencies to facilitate student learning about communication with elders. Data on student learning was collected via survey, focus groups, and reflective writing. Survey results showed that the five most important benefits students rated themselves as gaining from the…

We describe the item modeling development and evaluation process as applied to a quantitative assessment with high-stakes outcomes. In addition to expediting the item-creation process, a model-based approach may reduce pretesting costs, if the difficulty and discrimination of model-generated items may be predicted to a predefined level of…

The state-of-the-art in 10 areas of institutional research is considered in this collection of 10 articles. Of concern are: student attrition and retention, academic program evaluation, financial issues and economic impacts of higher education, institutional self-study and regional accreditation, peer studies of institutions, statistical packages…

A study investigated the relative importance of certain college attributes to the freshmen of Ashland University, a small, private univeristy in Ohio. Five institutional characteristics were examined: availability and variety of financial aid, dorm life (living conditions and food quality), quality of education (quality of teaching, career…

An examination of the impact of principals' administrative styles on school climate and culture to explain the discrepancy between observed and quantitative analyses in principal evaluations is the purpose of this study. A 3-year study of four secondary school principals utilized qualitative methodology (observation and interviews) and…

This report concerning information on education in the United States addresses three questions: (1) what has happened over the past 15 years? (2) what are some reasons for the decline that has taken place in information gathering activity? and (3) how far does the problem in information gathering extend? Federally sponsored research and…

The results of a survey in Sweden concerning the linguistic influences of English in that country are reported. Specifically, the spread and reception of three types of loans from English (direct, translation, and construction) are examined, as well as the use of the English plural and spelling with direct loans. The variables investigated include…

An evaluation of existing and proposed mechanisms to ensure data accuracy for the Pell Grant program is reported, and recommendations for efficient detection of fraud and error in the program are offered. One study objective was to examine the existing system of pre-established criteria (PEC), which are validation criteria that select students on…

This report contains the Proceedings of the 1982 Item Response Theory and Computerized Adaptive Testing Conference. The papers and their discussions are organized into eight sessions: (1) "Developments in Latent Trait Theory," with papers by Fumiko Samejima and Michael V. Levine; (2) "Parameter Estimation," with papers by…

This notebook contains 21 standards established by the Center for Educational Statistics (CES); CES legislation; and a description of the CES publication and publication review processes. The publication clearance procedures and the external advice and peer review policies are established by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement…

The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), a battery of 10 vocational tests, was administered to a national probability sample of nearly 12,000 young people, 15 to 23 years of age. Score distributions from the study were needed by the Armed Services to set performance levels for accepting and assigning recruits. Three psychometric…

The purpose of this study is to assess the current status of women professors of educational administration. Research findings are reviewed and discussed in the areas of socialization of women and sex-role stereotyping, mentoring, and networking. A 37-item questionnaire addressed background information, graduate school experiences, first…

The paper identifies and addresses four methodological weaknesses common to most previous studies that have used LISREL confirmatory factor analysis to test for the factorial validity and invariance of a single measuring instrument. Specifically, the paper demonstrates the steps involved in: (1) conducting sensitivity analyses to determine a…