A study examined the relationships of reading achievement and constructs about student literacy activities for four ethnic-gender groups. A secondary analysis of nearly 3,000 9-, 13-, and 17-year-olds' reading achievement and student questionnaire data from the 1986 National Assessment of Educational Progress was undertaken. The constructs varied…

Older workers 55 and over have the largest proportion of persons discouraged for job market reasons of any age group. There is also an indication that more older people are taking themselves out of the labor market completely for other than personal reasons--apparently because of labor market conditions. (Author/AJ)

Several multivariate statistical methodologies have been proposed to ensure objective and quantitative evaluation of the multitrait-multimethod matrix. The paper examines the performance of confirmatory factor analysis and covariance component models. It is shown, both empirically and formally, that confirmatory factor analysis is not a reliable…

This paper is part of a series of applied statistics monographs intended to provide supplementary reading for applied statistics students. In the present paper, derivations of the unbiased standard error of estimate for both the raw score and standard score linear models are presented. The derivations for raw score linear models are presented in…

To address the important issue of dropouts from their schools, the Council of Great City Schools undertook a major research effort to make sense of the disparate ways in which cities keep their dropout data, and to advise various policy makers on the development of common metrics for measuring the problem. A survey of Council member schools…

Factor analysis is the traditional method for studying the dimensionality of test data. However, under common conditions, the factor analysis of tetrachoric correlations does not recover the underlying structure of dichotomous data. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the factor analyses of tetrachoric correlations is unlikely to…

Statistical methodologists have sometimes criticized the use of conventional statistics in meta-analysis, and in recent years a number of them have advocated the use of a special new statistical methodology for research synthesis. An examination of recent books describing this methodology shows that it is seriously limited in its applicability to…

This study examined how four commonly used test equating procedures (linear, equipercentile, Rasch Model, and three-parameter) would respond to situations in which the properties or the two tests being equated were different. Data for two tests plus an external anchor test were generated from a three parameter model in which mean test differences…

Sampling distributions for ten tests for comparing population variances in a two group design were generated for several combinations of equal and unequal sample sizes, population means, and group variances when distributional forms differed. The ten procedures included: (1) O'Brien's (OB); (2) O'Brien's with adjusted degrees of freedom; (3)…

This report is based on data gathered in a 1982 survey of college and university libraries conducted as part of the Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS). The survey had a 91% response rate from a universe of 3,326 colleges and universities. The 1982 data categories cover the following time frames: staff and library hours as of fall…

Comparisons were made of three Angoff Design V linear equating methods (two forms equated to a common test, two forms predicted by a common test, or two forms used to predict a common test) and Tucker's and R. Levine's linear methods, under common item linear equating with non-equivalent populations. Forms of a professional certification test…

A general approach is proposed for modeling the structure of a two-way contingency table, and for drawing inferences about the marginal and interaction effects, cell parameters, and conditional probabilities. The prior distribution expresses uncertainty in a simple reduced model, in particular the independence model. The posterior estimates of the…

This set of 82 summaries is based on papers written between 1963 and 1982 concerning the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). TOEFL is currently required by more than 2,500 colleges and universities in the United States and Canada to determine the English proficiency of applicants whose native language is not English. It is also required…

Using data from the Westinghouse Learning Corporation Study, the effect of the Head Start Program on cognitive achievement in preschool children is examined. The use of statistical models to evaluate programs which non randomly assign children to "treatment" and "control" groups is discussed. Necessary conditions for unbiased…

The central reports clearance authority of the Federal Government is a legislatively sanctioned mechanism for applying constraints on the conduct of statistical and other data gathering activities by Federal Departments and agencies and other research parties funded by Federal government contracts. General recommendations for improving the overall…