This paper presents three evaluated case studies of the use of design activities in the early years of undergraduate engineering courses. Analyses of academic performance in these activities and in a separate test of understanding were correlated with student perceptions of the activities and with measures of learning style. General student…

A cognitive/metacognitive framework is presented for analysing applications tasks and responses to these. Conditions facilitating or impeding access to such tasks at the upper secondary level were identified using qualitative data analysis techniques within this framework. Strategies employed in exploiting, or overcoming these conditions were…

This report examines New York State's experience with multi-element formulas in budgeting for the State University of New York, and considers some of the obstacles confronting scientific budgeting in a political environment. A specific budgeting formula (the Academic Discipline Model) is examined, its evolution and application discussed, and the…

The possibility of using the grade differential statistic in college admissions decisions is explored. The grade differential statistic is the mean difference between the freshman college grade point average (GPA) and the high school GPA (HSGPA) for freshman college entrants from a particular high school. Rather than being an index of high school…

Meta-analytic methods were used to summarize results of Monte Carlo (MC) studies investigating the robustness of various statistical procedures for testing within-subjects effects in split-plot repeated measures designs. Through a literature review, accessible MC studies were identified, and characteristics (simulation factors) and outcomes (rates…

Issues related to between-class and within-class decomposition of achievement variance and the change of this decomposition over the course of the eighth-grade were examined using the Second International Mathematics Study (SIMS, 1985), a study in which there was a nested or hierarchical data structure of students within classes, within schools,…

Selected examples using the statistical packages Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), the Statistical Analysis System (SAS), and BMDP are presented to facilitate their use and encourage appropriate uses in: (1) a hierarchical design; (2) a confounded factorial design; and (3) variance component estimation procedures. To illustrate…

The adequacy of several approaches to estimation of proficiency distributions for the Trial State Assessment (TSA) in eighth grade mathematics of the National Assessment of Educational Progress was examined. These approaches are more restrictive than the estimation procedures originally used, with the same kind of plausible-values approach that…

A powerful way of understanding something new is by analogy with something already known. An analogy is defined as a mapping from one structure, which is already known (the base or source), to another structure that is to be inferred or discovered (the target). The research community has given considerable attention to analogical reasoning in the…

Drawing on the authors' extensive experience at Stanford University as well as the work of others, this book offers the first systematic approach to fiscal and human resource planning at colleges and universities. It shows how decision models can and should become an integral part of the planning process. The uses and misuses of planning models in…

Methods for predicting specific college course grades, based on small numbers of observations, were investigated. These methods use collateral information across potentially diverse institutions to obtain refined within-group parameter estimates. One method, referred to as pooled least squares with adjusted intercepts, assumes that slopes and…

The shortcomings of the conventional way of using and interpreting multiple-choice tests are summarized. Some theories and methodologies that can be applied for better use multiple-choice test items are described. Empirical facts are introduced to support the theoretical observations. New strategies are proposed that will reduce "noise"…

This study was designed to obtain descriptive data on the classroom evaluation practices of secondary teachers in two different public school systems. A self-report survey instrument was employed to collect data from 217 teachers in York, England, and 217 teachers in Minnesota. Respondents were asked to indicate which specific techniques they…

When the three-parameter logistic model and item response theory are used to analyze Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) data, there are problems with the assumption of unidimensionality. Linear factor analytic models, exploratory factor analysis programs, and the comparison of item parameter estimates for heterogeneous and homogeneous…

This paper presents an introduction to the use of latent trait models for the estimation of domain scores. It was shown that these models provided an advantage over classical test theory and binomial error models in that unbiased estimates of true domain scores could be obtained even when items were not randomly selected from a universe of items.…