bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The effect of cultivation method on erosion in agricultural catchments: integrating AHP in GIS environments
Authors: Svoray Tal , Levi Roei , Zaidenberg Rami , Yaacoby Beny
Published: September 2014

The cultivation method used in agricultural catchments can have a great effect on erosion processes; as such, determining the effects on form and degree is crucial. One commonly held hypothesis is that a shift to minimum tillage methods should reduce the rate of erosion. Here, we examine the effect of cultivation methods and environmental conditions on soil erosion risks in field crops and orchards in an agricultural catchment in northern Israel. The examination was conducted using AHP (analytic hierarchy process) and GIS (geographic information system)‐based computer simulations. Field validation of the simulations was conducted during the 2009–2010 winter season. The spatially explicit data on cultivation method, combined with environmental and climatic data, yielded an explanation of most of the variation in erosion risks in the catchment (kappa =0·93). Of the 10 criteria examined, the cultivation method and slope were the two variables with the greatest effect on increased soil erosion. Furthermore, soil loss risks were reduced substantially as a result of substituting conventional tillage with reduced tillage; substituting reduced tillage with conservation tillage; and changing the tillage direction to perpendicular to the direction of the slope. These results are reasonable in light of the modifications that mechanical tools cause in the soil structure, as observed in the penetration depth and the aggregate stability measurements used in this study. Despite the difficulty in collecting spatially explicit data on cultivation methods, we believe that it is of utmost importance to use such data to study erosion risks in agricultural catchments. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
EFFECTS OF COACHING ON GRE APTITUDE TEST SCORES
Authors: Powers Donald E.
Published: September 2014

The controversy over the effectiveness of coaching for standardized admission tests has been fueled by studies that have sought dichotomous answers to questions that are more appropriately posed as ones of degree. Instead of asking categorically “Does coaching work?“, researchers would seem better advised to ask “How much time and effort, devoted to what kinds of coaching experiences, produce how much improvement in test performance?”

To explore some relational answers, information on test preparation activities was collected from a large representative sample of candidates who took the GRE Aptitude Test in June 1980. About 3 percent of these candidates indicated that they had attended formal coaching programs for one or more sections of the test and provided information on the length, cost, and offerer of the courses.

After adjusting for differences in the background characteristics of coached and uncoached students, effects on test scores were related to the length, the cost, and the type of programs offered. The effects on GRE verbal ability scores were not significantly related to the amount of coaching that examinees received. Quantitative coaching effects appeared to increase only slightly with time, but the relationship was not statistically significant. Effects on analytical ability scores, on the other hand, were related significantly to the length of coaching programs, through improved performance on two analytical item types, analysis of explanations and logical diagrams. These item types were shown previously to be susceptible to improvement through formal instructional intervention and have since been deleted from the test.

Test performance was related to the kinds of coaching programs examinees attended only for the quantitative section of the test. With respect to the possibility that some kinds of test takers might profit more than others from coaching, exploratory analyses suggested that examinees intending to pursue higher‐level degrees may have benefited more than lower‐level degree seekers. This finding is consistent with the conjecture that highly motivated test takers may achieve greater effects from coaching than less motivated examinees.

Overall, the data suggest that, when compared with the two highly susceptible item types that have been removed from the GRE Aptitude Test, the test item types in the current version of the test (now called the GRE General Test) appear to show relatively little susceptibility to formal coaching experiences of the kinds considered here.
ASSESSING UNEXPECTED DIFFERENTIAL ITEM PERFORMANCE OF FEMALE CANDIDATES ON SAT AND TSWE FORMS ADMINISTERED IN DECEMBER 1977: AN APPLICATION OF THE STANDARDIZATION APPROACH1
Authors: Dorans Neil J. , Kulick Edward
Published: September 2014

A new approach to assessing unexpected differential item performance (item bias or item fairness) is developed and applied to the item responses of males and females to SAT/TSWE items administered operationally in December 1977. While the main body of the report describes the particulars of the present application and delineates the essential features of the approach, a technical appendix describes the standardization approach in detail. The primary goal of the standardization approach is to control for differences in subpopulation ability before making comparisons between subpopulation performance on test items. By so doing, it removes the contaminating effects of ability differences from the assessment of item fairness. Of the total of 195 items studied, the standardization approach identified only a handful as meriting careful review for possible content bias. Of these few, only one item exhibited a clearly unacceptable degree of unexpected differential item performance between males and females that could be attributed to content bias.
PARENTS AS TEACHERS OF THEIR OWN LEARNING DISABLED CHILDREN
Authors: Sigel Irving E. , McGillicuddy‐DeLisi Ann V. , Flaugher Janice , Rock Donald A.
Published: September 2014

The aim of this research was to investigate parental belief systems and parental childrearing practices, relative to the intellectual development of the communication handicapped (CH) preschool child, embedded within the context of family size and ordinal position of the CH child. An equal number of families with a non‐handicaped (NCH) child served as a contrast group. The basic hypothesis underlying this research was that parental practices would be directly related to parents' beliefs about child development processes and about their own child's cognitive competence. These beliefs stem from at least two factors: First, experience as a child in a family; second, experience as a parent. The parent‐child relationship in this setting was viewed as interactional, where each parent acted as teacher, socializer and manager of the child's behavior. In this role, the parent also learned both from the CH child and NCH child in the family. Therein lay the interest in investigating the impact of the parent‐child relationship on parents and on CH children.

Specifically, the study addressed four problems: (1) the relationship between parental belief systems regarding children's cognitive capabilities in general and with respect to their own CH child in particular, (2) the effect of the CH child's level of functioning and position in the family constellation on parental belief systems, (3) the relationship between these perspectives and actual parental teaching and management strategies, and (4) the effect of such teaching/management behaviors on the CH child's level of cognitive functioning and level of representational competence. Each of these segments was identified and a path (causal) analysis model was developed from data collected with the following instruments: The Communication Strategy Interview, the Construction of the Child Interview, The Family Influences on Childrearing Interview (all of which were used to assess parental beliefs about developmental states and processes and to assess childrearing strategies and family practices); The Parent‐Child Interaction Observation System [based on Sigel's (1979) distancing theory of representational competence, this was used to identify different types of parent‐child interactions in structured teaching contexts and in semistructured story‐telling task]; and a series of standard evaluation tests and nonverbal Piagetian tasks that focused on transformation, memory, sequencing and anticipation to evaluate children's level of cognitive functioning and representational abilities.
THE VALIDITY OF THE DESCRIPTIVE TESTS OF LANGUAGE SKILLS: RELATIONSHIPS TO DIRECT MEASURES OF WRITING ABILITY AND TO GRADES IN INTRODUCTORY COLLEGE ENGLISH COURSES
Authors: Weiss David , Jackson Rex
Published: September 2014

The Descriptive Tests of Language Skills (dtls)—comprising tests of reading comprehension, logical relationships, vocabulary, usage, and sentence structure developed by the College Board—are designed to help colleges assess the language skills of entering students for placement and instructional planning purposes. A complete description of the dtls and of field trials of the tests may be found in the Guide to the Use of the Descriptive Tests of Language Skills (College Entrance Examination Board, 1978).

Performance data on the dtls for entering college students were collected through a pilot study of 4,234 students in 16 colleges (see Table 1).
WAS THERE ONE DISTRACTOR TOO MANY?
Authors: Wainer Howard , Wadkins J. R. Jefferson , Rogers Alfred
Published: September 2014

A mathematical item on the SAT – the Rolling Circle Problem – was found to be faulty. This paper reports a detailed investigation into its mathematical and psychometric properties. In addition to examining performance of the item with more than 100,000 examinees, two small studies were performed with the aid of a physical model of the problem. It was found that the problem could be considered ambiguous due to the nonspecification of the frame of reference, but that almost no one noticed this lack.
THE BIAS DUE TO INCOMPLETE HATCHING
Authors: Rosenbaum Paul R. , Rubin Donald B.
Published: September 2014

Observational studies comparing groups of treated and control units are often used to estimate the effects caused by treatments. Matching is a method for sampling a large reservoir of potential controls to produce a control group of modest size that is ostensibly similar to the treated group. In practice, there is a trade‐off between the desires to find matches for all treated units and to obtain matched treated‐control pairs that are extremely similar to each other. We derive expressions for the bias in the average matched pair difference due to (1) the failure to match all treated units—incomplete matching, and (2) the failure to obtain exact matches—inexact matching. A practical example shows that the bias due to incomplete matching can be severe, and moreover, can be avoided entirely by using an appropriate multivariate nearest available matching algorithm, which in the example, leaves only a small residual bias due to inexact matching.
THE SHRUNKEN GENERALIZED DISTANCE: A USEFUL CONCEPT FOR ESTIMATION OF THE ACTUAL ERROR RATE1,2
Authors: Dorans Neil J.
Published: September 2014

The mathematical concept of the shrunken generalized distance is introduced as a missing link in the framework of classification and prediction problems. The nature of the criterion can be used to distinguish between a prediction problem and a classification problem. The well‐known continuous criterion indices least squares regression weights, squared validity coefficient and mean squared error of prediction have binary criterion brethren, in both the population and sample, namely, the Fisher linear discriminant weights, generalized distance, and error rates, respectively. Likewise the population squared cross‐validity coefficient has a binary‐criterion relative, the shrunken generalized distance. An estimator of the shrunken generalized distance is introduced and shown to be useful for estimation of the actual error rate.
OLDER AND YOUNGER GRADUATE STUDENTS: A COMPARISON OF GOALS, GRADES, AND GRE SCORES
Authors: Clark Mary Jo
Published: September 2014

The 1980–81 GRE General Test verbal and quantitative ability scores were examined for four age groups of test takers–those age 22 or less, 23–29, 30–39, and 40 or more–and two groups returning to graduate study many years after completing the bachelor's degree–those 9–15 years beyond the baccalaureate, and those 16 or more years beyond the baccalaureate. Average verbal scores were about the same for all test takers regardless of age group or recency of undergraduate study; average quantitative scores were progressively lower across groups of increasing age or distance from the baccalaureate. Correlations between both verbal and quantitative scores and first‐year graduate school grades were about the same across age groups of enrolled students, suggesting that the scores were equally useful in predicting the first‐year graduate school grades of younger and older applicants. Undergraduate grade averages were lower for older than for younger students, and were less closely related to graduate school grades among the older student groups. Differences in fields of study, background characteristics, and attitudes toward test taking also are reported.
THE CORRELATES OF SAT TEST SCORES AND SELF REPORTED INCOME ON THE STUDENT DESCRIPTIVE QUESTIONNAIRE
Authors: Baird Leonard L.
Published: September 2014

Some of the the social functions of testing were examined by studying the characteristics and educational outcomes of students with different test scores and from families with different incomes. Using SAT‐SDQ file information, the educational plans and other relevant characteristics of students with different combinations of family income and test scores were compared. A follow‐up of applicants who had completed high school in 1981 determined their educational status. These data were related to the applicants' test scores and family incomes to estimate the relative influence of each on their educational outcomes.
TWO SIMULATED FEASIBILITY STUDIES IN COMPUTERIZED ADAPTIVE TESTING (CAT)1,2,3
Authors: Stocking Martha L.
Published: September 2014

This paper describes two simulated feasibility studies conducted in support of a project to implement computerized adaptive testing on microcomputers for college placement purposes. The first study compares adaptive testing with alternative conventional peaked tests. The second study explores two stopping rules: fixed test length and fixed standard error of measurement. These studies typify the kind of psychometric research required to initiate and support operational adaptive testing programs.
ACCESS TO COLLEGE FOR MEXICAN AMERICANS IN THE SOUTHWEST: REPLICATION AFTER 10 YEARS
Authors: Payán Rose M. , Peterson Richard E. , Castille Nancy A.
Published: September 2014

This article is based on a 1982 survey of Hispanic higher education enrollment and related practices and issues. Addressed to financial aid officers in five southwestern states, it was a replication of a similar study carried out in 1972. In addition to presenting comparable results from the two surveys, the article reviews recent literature, comments on critical issues in Hispanic access, and outlines a number of implications from the study for expanding access to college on the part of Hispanic youth.
FOREIGN NATIONALS TAKING THE GRE GENERAL TEST DURING 1981–82: HIGHLIGHTS OF A STUDY
Authors: Wilson Kenneth M.
Published: September 2014

During the 1981–82 testing year, foreign nationals representing over 140 countries or territories made up approximately 17 percent of all GRE General Test takers. However, they were heavily concentrated in scientific‐technical fields–for example, almost one‐half of all examinees in engineering and one‐third of those in math‐science fields were foreign nationals. Most of these examinees were non‐native speakers of English for whom average scores on the verbal and analytical measures were considerably lower than those of native English speakers (both U.S. and foreign) in similar fields of study. However, the quantitative mean profile, by field, of foreign examinees did not vary according to English language background and was quite similar to that of U.S. examinees.

Detailed comparative profiles of GRE performance data are provided for the general foreign and U.S. examinee populations, and for foreign examinees classified by country of citizenship. In addition, the study analyzes GRE performance of groups of foreign and U.S. examinees defined in terms of age, sex, reported English language communication status, intended graduate field, U.S. vs other undergraduate origin, repeater vs nonrepeater status, and other personal, academic, and testing‐related characteristics.

Study findings suggest that GRE General Test data (especially verbal and analytical test data) generated by non‐U.S. citizens from non‐native English speaking societies should not be treated as comparable to test data for U.S. examinees or examinees from other native‐English speaking societies.
BRAIN LATERALIZATION RESEARCH: EDUCATIONAL AND PSYCHOMETRIC IMPLICATIONS
Authors: Bejar Isaac I.
Published: September 2014

The purpose of this report is to distill curricular and testing implications of brain research. The report will focus on three topics. One topic is the possibility that brain lateralization–that is, the degree to which the two brain hemispheres specialize in different types of information processing–is an individual differences variable that should be measured, just as we measure individual differences in verbal and mathematical aptitudes. Second, since one of the better‐established findings is that verbal and spatial abilities tend to reside in different hemispheres, the possibility of incorporating spatial ability into admissions testing is explored. Third, the calls for curricular reform based on brain research are examined.
A GENERALIZATION OF ADJUSTMENT, WITH AN APPLICATION TO THE SCALING OF ESSAY SCORES
Authors: Rosenbaum Paul R.
Published: September 2014

In a subclassified finite population, the sample mean and the estimator based on direct adjustment are the two extreme representatives of a family of empirically weighted estimators derived from different logit models for selection probabilities or propensity scores. Other members of this family often have several advantages: (a) unlike the sample mean, they permit adjustment for subclasses, (b) unlike the directly adjusted estimator, they can often be calculated when there are no respondents in some subclasses, and (c) the weights assigned to the subclasses are less variable than the weights associated with the directly adjusted estimator. In conjunction with subclasses formed from an estimated balancing score, the empirically weighted estimator is applied to scale the scores of self‐selected essays on the College Board's 1982 Advanced Placement Examination in Biology.
A PRELIMINARY STUDY OF RATERS FOR THE TEST OF SPOKEN ENGLISH
Authors: Bejar Isaac I.
Published: September 2014

The investigation was undertaken to provide information about the feasibility of reducing scoring costs by using one rater instead of the two that are now used for the TSE. It was concluded that because of the possibility of different standards among potential raters, it does not appear feasible to use a single rater as the sole determiner of speaking proficiency under the current system. Other possible alternatives to a single rating, relying on psychometric methodology and technology, are discussed. The approach was to first examine the possibility of developing a “quality control” index that would predict the extent of the disagreement between two raters. The index that was developed for this purpose could not be validated. It was found that the best predictors of rater disagreement were the identities of the raters. The disagreements, however, resulted from the differing standards used by different raters. That is, raters agree substantially about the ordering of examinees but vary slightly in the severity of their ratings.
AN INVESTIGATION OF THE FEASIBILITY AND PRACTICAL OUTCOMES OF PRE‐EQUATING THE SAT VERBAL AND MATHEMATICAL SECTIONS1,2,3
Authors: Eignor Daniel R.
Published: September 2014

Test disclosure legislation, enacted and presently being considered in several states, has serious implications for testing programs relying on conventional equating methods to put new forms of exams on scale. Certain of the problems presented by this legislation can be circumvented by applying item response theory (IRT) based equating methods. Many of the problems can be circumvented if the IRT equating performed is pre‐equating, that is, establishing conversions from raw to scaled scores, through the use of pretest data, before the time the new test is administered operationally. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which item parameters estimated on SAT‐verbal and SAT‐mathematical pretest data can be used for equating purposes in a situation where intact final form SAT testing data has normally been used. More specifically, the items that appear in any final SAT form come from multiple pretests, and to the extent that the item statistics are sensitive to the context or position in which the items appear, there may be a lack of fit between the equating based on pretest data and final form data. In this study, the verbal and mathematical sections of two SAT forms were calibrated from pretest data, pre‐equated to existing SAT forms, and then the results of the pre‐equating compared in a number of ways to final form IRT equating and conventional linear equating methods.
MEASURING SOCIAL STATUS WITH OCCUPATIONAL INFORMATION: A SIMPLE METHOD
Authors: Stricker Lawrence J.
Published: September 2014

A measure of social status was devised: a multiple‐choice question that obtains occupational information and is scalable with both the Duncan Socioeconomic Index and the Siegel Prestige Scale. The correlations of this device with other measures of social status and with tests of general ability were assessed in a study of white and black Navy recruits. The correlations were similar to those obtained with a conventional measure that relies on judges scaling occupational information elicited by an open‐ended question. This multiple‐choice device may be a good prototype for a standardized measure of social status.
CAN A TEST BE TOO RELIABLE?
Authors: Wainer Howard
Published: September 2014

It is shown that summary statistics which are commonly used to measure test quality (reliability, mean rbis, and mean proportion correct) can be seriously misleading. This is demonstrated and explained.
CONTRIBUTION OF VERBAL ITEM TYPES IN THE GRE GENERAL TEST TO ACCURACY OF MEASUREMENT OF THE VERBAL SCORES
Authors: Lord Frederic M. , Wild Cheryl L.
Published: September 2014

The main purpose of this study is to compare the contribution to measurement accuracy of the verbal score of each of the four verbal item types included in the GRE General Test. Comparisons are based on item response theory, a methodology that allows the researcher to look at the accuracy of individual points on the score scale. This methodology is based on the assumption that the four verbal item types measure the same verbal ability. Since the results of the study do indicate that the reading comprehension item type measures something slightly different from what is measured by sentence completion, analogy, or antonym item types, only tentative conclusions may be drawn.

The antonym item type contributes the most accuracy of the four item types for scores above about 550. Analogy items contribute to the measurement accuracy of verbal ability throughout the score range. This is especially true when item types are matched on verbal difficulty. These results suggest that the analogy and antonym item types are useful for maintaining accuracy of the verbal score scale at the upper levels. Eliminating these items might have a serious impact on the validity of the GRE verbal score in the upper regions of the scale. Studies of the validity of item types at the upper score range using external criteria would be necessary to understand the exact contribution of the item types to the validity of the test.
BAYES MODAL ESTIMATION IN ITEM RESPONSE MODELS*
Authors: Mislevy Robert J.
Published: September 2014

This article describes a Bayesian framework for estimation in item response models, with two‐stage prior distributions on both item and examinee populations. Strategies for point and interval estimation are discussed, and a general procedure based on the EM algorithm is presented. Details are given for implementation under one‐, two‐, and three‐parameter logistic IRT models. Novel features include minimally restrictive assumptions about examinee distributions and the exploitation of dependence among item parameters in a population of interest. Improved estimation in a moderately small sample is demonstrated with simulated data.
STATISTICS AND CAUSAL INFERENCE*
Authors: Holland Paul W. , Glymour Clark , Granger Clive
Published: September 2014

Problems involving causal inference have dogged at the heels of Statistics since its earliest days. Correlation does not imply causation and yet causal conclusions drawn from a carefully designed experiment are often valid. What can a statistical model say about causation? This question is addressed by using a particular model for causal inference (Rubin, 1974; Holland and Rubin, 1983) to critique the discussions of other writers on causation and causal inference. These include selected philosophers, medical researchers, statisticians, econometricians, and proponents of causal modelling.
CONDITIONAL ASSOCIATION AND UNIDIMENSIONALITY IN MONOTONE LATENT VARIABLE MODELS
Authors: Holland Paul W. , Rosenbaum Paul R.
Published: September 2014

Latent variable models represent the joint distribution of observable variables in terms of a simple structure involving unobserved or latent variables, usually assuming the conditional independence of the observable variables given the latent variables. These models play an important role in educational measurement and psychometrics, in sociology, in population genetics, and are implicit in some work on systems reliability. We study a broad class of latent variable models, namely the monotone unidimensional models, in which the latent variable is a scalar, the observable variables are conditionally independent given the latent variable, and the conditional distribution of the observables given the latent variable is stochastically increasing in the latent variable. All models in this class imply a new strong form of positive dependence among the observable variables, namelyconditional(positive) association. This positive dependence condition may be used to test whether any model in this class can provide an adequate fit to observed data. Various applications, generalizations, and a numerical example are discussed.
A SURVEY OF HANDICAPPED STUDENTS TAKING SPECIAL TEST ADMINISTRATIONS OF THE SAT AND GRE
Authors: Ragosta Marjorie , Kaplan Bruce
Published: September 2014

This study examined the responses of disabled people to questionnaires on special testing accommodations both for college testing and for the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE). The questionnaires were developed to help evaluate testing accommodations for disabled people and to obtain additional information on the severity or kinds of disabilities within categories of handicap.

After discussing the limitations of the study due to a poor response rate and small subgroups of respondents, the study reported on the high level of overall satisfaction with special testing accommodations and covered extensively the complaints of a small minority. These complaints involved the test itself and the conditions of testing, including time and space considerations.

A second major section of the report dealt with a comparison of accommodations made for the SAT or GRE with accommodations provided for college testing. The standardized tests were offered in special versions and with extra time more frequently than were college tests.

A tentative look within the four disability groups of hearing impaired, learning disabled, physically handicapped, and visually impaired test takers found subgroups worthy of more extensive study.
EXPLOITING AUXILIARY INFORMATION ABOUT EXAMINEES IN THE ESTIMATION OF ITEM PARAMETERS
Authors: Mislevy Robert J.
Published: September 2014

The precision of item parameter estimates can be increased by taking advantage of dependencies between the latent proficiency variable and auxiliary examinee variables such as age, courses taken, and years of schooling. Gains roughly equivalent to two to six additional item responses can be expected in typical educational and psychological applications. Empirical Bayes computational procedures are presented, and illustrated with data from theProfile of American Youthsurvey.
THE PREDICTIVE VALIDITY OF THE GRE GENERAL TEST FOR DISABLED STUDENTS
Authors: Braun Henry , Ragosta Marjorie , Kaplan Bruce
Published: September 2014

From the fall of 1981 through June, 1984, more than 850 disabled examinees took special administrations of the GRE. Through efforts involving more than 400 graduate schools, grade point averages were obtained on 278 of these disabled students, about 236 of whom had data complete enough to be included in the study. Disabled students earned lower mean GRE scores than their nonhandicapped counterparts, but, except for visually impaired students, they earned overall graduate grade point averages very close to those of nonhandicapped students. Differences in the GRE performance of blind students compared to students with other visual disabilities raised questions for further research.

The predictive validity of the GRE scores obtained in nonstandard administrations was estimated with empirical Bayes procedures. The differences between actual and predicted grade point averages were more negative for disabled students, and the correlations between predicted and actual scores more modest than results for nonhandicapped students. In addition a distinctive pattern was observed for disabled students: higher predicted FYA scores were accompanied by increased overprediction. However, considerable caution was recommended in interpreting the results of the study because of the lack of information on nonhandicapped students in the same departments as disabled students.
PATTERNS OF TEST TAKING AND SCORE CHANGE FOR EXAMINEES WHO REPEAT THE TEST OF ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Authors: Wilson Kenneth M.
Published: September 2014

This study was principally concerned with the analysis of patterns of test taking and score change for examinees who repeated the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) in an International or Special Center Testing (I&SC) administration within 24 to 60 months after initial testing. Data for examinees who repeated TOEFL within 1 to 12 months following initial testing by institutions participating in the TOEFL Institutional Testing Program (INST) were also analyzed. In both the I&SC and INST samples, TOEFL repeaters registered substantial average net gains in performance. Findings suggested that there may be differences among national‐linguistic groups in typical rate of acquisition of proficiency in English. The magnitude of the average score changes found to be associated with test repetition for repeaters, combined with relatively strong differences among national‐linguistic groups in both incidence of test repetition and mean score change, indicates that for purposes of summary reporting on TOEFL performance (e.g., in defining basic reference groups), it is important to specify the test‐repetition status of the groups of examinees involved.
FISHER SCORING ALGORITHM FOR VARIANCE COMPONENT ANALYSIS WITH HIERARCHICALLY NESTED RANDOM EFFECTS
Authors: Longford Nicholas T.
Published: September 2014

We discuss several issues arising in applications of variance component analysis for data with multilevel structure, with specific reference to the Fisher scoring algorithm of Longford (1987). An adaptation of the algorithm for the exponential family, with particular relevance to discrete data, is presented.
UNIVARIATE VS. BIVARIATE SMOOTHING IN FREQUENCY ESTIMATION EQUATING
Authors: Livingston Samuel A. , Feryok Nancy J.
Published: September 2014

This study compared four variations of frequency estimation equating: (1) without smoothing; (2) with smoothing of the estimated distributions to be equated; (3 and 4) with smoothing of the observed joint distributions on the anchor test and each test to be equated. The tests consisted of 50 items, with an internal anchor of 19 common items. The criterion was accuracy in reproducing the results of equating in the population of 50,000 students. Smoothing the observed joint distributions substantially improved the equating in samples of 100 and 300 students. Smoothing offered little or no improvement in samples of 1000 and 3000 students.
THE STATUS OF RESEARCH ON THE SCHOLASTIC APTITUDE TEST (SAT) AND HISPANIC STUDENTS IN POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION1,2
Authors: Pennock‐Roman Maria
Published: September 2014

In this review of research studies on differences between Hispanic‐American and White, non‐Hispanic groups on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), four questions are addressed: (1) What factors are associated with ethnic group mean differences on the SAT? (2) What types of item format or content are identified as being differentially easier or more difficult for Hispanic vs. White, non‐Hispanic students? (3) How accurately do selective admissions tests predict the performance of Hispanic students in college? and (4) Do Hispanic students have equal access to information necessary for long‐term and short‐term preparation for selective admissions tests?
PREPARING FOR THE SAT®
Authors: Powers Donald E.
Published: September 2014

To document the extent of special test preparation for the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), we conducted two separate surveys—one of a stratified random sample of 1986–87 SAT takers and the other of a stratified random sample of secondary schools whose students take the SAT. The objectives were to (1) determine the availability, and incidence of use, of a variety of programs and resources designed to prepare students to take the SAT; (2) describe some of the salient features of these resources; (3) estimate the amount of time (and money) that students spend on these resources; and (4) obtain examinees' reactions regarding the effectiveness of these resources.

The results of these surveys revealed that nearly half of all secondary schools offer special programs of preparation for the SAT. These programs differ somewhat in their availability according to the geographic region, locale, and degree to which schools also provide various other kinds of courses.

Students participate, to varying degrees, in a variety of preparation activities. Test familiarization materials provided by the College Board are the most widely used. Other commercially available books and texts used in regular courses are also consulted relatively frequently. Engagement is much less frequent with test preparation software, special programs given either at school or outside school, books of practice tests from the College Board, or private tutoring. About 11 percent of all students in the survey said they had attended preparation or coaching sessions outside school, where this minority of students paid, on average, about $150.

When particular programs were available, cost was cited less often than some other factor as a reason for not engaging in preparation. This was true for each of several resources, including coaching courses.

On average, students spend a total of 10 hours preparing for the SAT. While about 10 percent of all students reported spending 58 hours or more, nearly as many did not devote any time at all to preparation. About two in every five test takers take time to review material from their regular mathematics courses, and a similar proportion review content from their English courses.

Students were generally positive about each of the preparation activities in which they engaged. Coaching, tutoring, and the use of College Board–provided books of practice tests were judged—by the relatively small proportions of students who employed these resources—to be somewhat more helpful than were other methods.
SPECIFYING OPTIMUM EXAMINEES FOR ITEM PARAMETER ESTIMATION IN ITEM RESPONSE THEORY
Authors: Stocking Martha L.
Published: September 2014

Information functions are used to find the optimum ability levels and maximum contributions to information for estimating item parameters in three commonly used logistic item response models. For the three and two parameter logistic models, examinees who contribute maximally to the estimation of item difficulty contribute little to the estimation of item discrimination. This suggests that in applications that depend heavily upon the veracity of individual item parameter estimates (e.g. adaptive testing or test construction), better item calibration results may be obtained (for fixed sample sizes) from examinee calibration samples in which ability is widely dispersed.
WHEN DO ITEM RESPONSE FUNCTION AND MANTEL‐HAENSZEL DEFINITIONS OF DIFFERENTIAL ITEM FUNCTIONING COINCIDE?*
Authors: Zwick Rebecca
Published: September 2014

A test item is typically considered free of differential item functioning (DIF) if its item response function is the same across demographic groups. A popular means of testing for DIF is the Mantel‐Haenszel (MH) approach. Holland and Thayer showed that under the Rasch model, identity of item response functions across demographic groups implies that the MH null hypothesis will be satisfied when the MH matching variable is test score, including the studied item. This result, however, cannot be generalized to the class of items for which item response functions are monotonic and local independence holds. Suppose that all item response functions are identical across groups, but the ability distributions for the two groups are ordered. In general, the population MH result will show DIF favoring the higher group on some items and the lower group on others. If the studied item is excluded from the matching criterion under these conditions, the population MH result will always show DIF favoring the higher group.
STANDARD ERRORS OF CORRELATIONS ADJUSTED FOR INCIDENTAL SELECTION
Authors: Allen Nancy L. , Dunbar Stephen B.
Published: September 2014

This investigation examined the standard error of correlations which have been adjusted for selection with commonly used formulas developed by Pearson (1903). Specifically, it had three major purposes: (1) to provide large‐sample approximations of the standard error of a correlation adjusted using the Peason‐Lawley three‐variable correction formula; (2) to examine the standard errors of adjusted correlations under specific conditions; and (3) to compare various estimates of the standard errors under direct and indirect selection.

Two theory‐based large‐sample estimates of the standard error of a correlation adjusted for indirect selection were developed using the delta method. These two estimates were compared to one another, to a bootstrap estimate and to an empirical standard deviation of a series of adjusted correlations generated in a simulation study.

The simulation study manipulated factors defined by (1) sample size, (2) selection ratio, (3) underlying population distribution, and (4) population correlations, in situations that satisfied the basic assumptions of the Pearson‐Lawley procedures. The results indicated that the large‐sample and bootstrap estimates were very similar when the sample size was 500 and, in most cases, when the sample size was 100. On the basis of results of the simulation study, the simpler of the two large‐sample approximations appears to offer a reasonable estimate of the standard error of an adjusted correlation without resorting to complex, computer‐intensive approaches.
POPULATION DIFFERENCES IN SPEED VERSUS LEVEL OF GRE READING COMPREHENSION: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY
Authors: Wilson Kenneth M.
Published: September 2014

The concept of differences in “speed” versus “level” of reading comprehension is well established, and tests of reading ability frequently provide separate measures of “speed of reading with understanding” and “level of ability to read with understanding.” This study was undertaken to explore possible population differences in speed versus level of GRE reading comprehension, using operational measures computed post hoc from item‐level data in GRE files for a pre‐October‐1977 edition of the verbal test–that is, a version in which 40 GRE reading comprehension (RC) items were included as a separately timed section, administered under then current formula‐scoring instructions.

The “level” (formula) score was defined by performance on the first 20 RC items (RC1), completed by almost all examinees, and the “speed” (formula) score was based on the second 20 items (RC2)–the number of RC2 items “attempted” ranged from 0‐20. RC1, RC2, and a formula score based on 28 odd‐numbered discrete‐verbal items (DVodd) were z‐scaled in data for more than 21,000 examinees tested in a scheduled administration of the GRE in October 1976. Patterns of differences between correlated z‐scaled means (mean RC2 minus mean RC1) were analyzed for (a) U.S. examinees classified by sex, ethnicity, English‐language communication status (English primary language, or EPL, versus English second language, or ESL), and four broad graduate major areas, and (b) non‐U.S. examinees classified by sex, language status, and academic area.

It was considered plausible that speed/level differences would be present in analyses by graduate major area and by EPL/ESL status, but not in analyses by sex or by ethnicity. Patterns of relative standing on RC2 and RC1 were generally consistent with hypothesis: RC2 > RC1 (higher standing on speed than on level) for humanities and social science majors, and non‐U.S EPL examinees; RC2 < RC1 for physical science majors and bioscience majors, and both U.S. and non‐U.S. ESL examinees. For all U.S. ethnic groups studied (African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, and White American), the basic pattern was as expected, namely, RC2 − RC1. and this pattern tended to obtain for males and females. Criterion‐related validity for RC1 and RC2 was explored, using self‐reported undergraduate GPA (SR‐UGPA). RC2 tended to be more highly correlated than RC1 with the SR‐UGPA criterion, for subgroups of U.S. examinees, except for Hispanic examinees and ESL examinees. For these two partially overlapping subgroups, and for subgroups of non‐U.S. examinees, coefficients for RC1 (level) were consistently larger than those for RC2 (speed).

The findings suggest that further exploration of the role of “speed” in measures of GRE reading comprehension, and in other GRE ability measures, is warranted.
A CONSIDERATION FOR VARIABLE LENGTH ADAPTIVE TESTS
Authors: Wingersky Marilyn S.
Published: September 2014

In a variable‐length adaptive test with a stopping rule that relied on the asymptotic standard error of measurement of the examinee's estimated true score, Stocking (1987) discovered that it was sufficient to know the examinee's true score and the number of items administered to predict with some accuracy whether an examinee's true score was over or under estimated. She theorized that this result might be due to the standard error being correct only asymptotically. Sympson (1985) recommended two Bayesian stopping rules that do not rely on any asymptotic properties. This paper replicates the Stocking study using one of the variable‐length adaptive testing procedures recommended by Sympson to see whether that procedure gives the same result as found in the Stocking study. The Sympson procedure uses a stopping rule that relies on the posterior standard deviation of the number‐right true score on a criterion test.

In both the Stocking study and the Sympson procedure, knowing the examinee's true score and the number of items administered is sufficient for predicting whether the estimated true score is over or under estimated. This is due to the fact that the magnitude of both the asymptotic standard error of measurement of the estimated scores and the posterior standard deviation of the true score varies scores and the posterior standard deviation of the true score varies as the estimated true score varies.
THE KERNEL METHOD OF EQUATING SCORE DISTRIBUTIONS
Authors: Holland Paul W. , Thayer Dorothy T.
Published: September 2014

A new and unified approach to test equating is described that is based on log‐linear models for smoothing score distributions and on the kernel method of non‐parametric density estimation. The new method contains both linear and standard equipercentile methods as special cases and can handle several important equating data collection designs. An example is used to illustrate the new method for the random groups and external anchor‐test designs.
REDUCING TEST FORM OVERLAP OF THE GRE SUBJECT TEST IN MATHEMATICS USING IRT TRIPLE‐PART EQUATING
Authors: McKinley Robert L. , Schaeffer Gary A.
Published: September 2014

A study was conducted to evaluate the feasibility of using item response theory (IRT) equating to reduce test form overlap of the GRE Subject Test in Mathematics. Monte‐Carlo methods were employed to compare double‐part equating with 20‐item common item blocks to triple‐part equating with 10‐item common item blocks. The two methods were evaluated using a circular design that allowed a form to be equated to itself through a series of other forms. The design was replicated five times.

Comparisons between scores on equated forms and scores on the base form indicated that triple‐part equating did at least as well as double‐part equating. This suggests that it may be reasonable to use IRT equating with the GRE Mathematics test with smaller common item blocks than are used with the linear equating procedures currently employed, as long as there are more of them. This would result in a substantial reduction in the advantage given to repeat examinees, and would significantly decrease the number of items on any one test form affected by compromised security.

It was concluded that triple‐part equating is promising, but it was pointed out that some issues need to be resolved before the procedure can be implemented. Among these are the effect of differing ability distributions across forms to be scaled, and the practicality of constructing six common item sets from each form. It was recommended that an additional study be conducted to examine the effect of differing ability distributions on the equating process, and to investigate the feasibility of combining common item sets into a single scaling.