This dissertation consists of three essays on microeconomics. The first two are theoretical papers that address issues in collective decision-making. The last is an experimental paper that explores gender differences in test-taking strategies. In the first essay, we define a family of social choice rules that depend on the population’s preferences and on the probability distribution over the sets of feasible alternatives that the society will face. Our rules can be interpreted as distance-minimization – selecting the order closest to the population’s preferences, using a metric on the orders that reflects the distribution over the possible feasible sets. The distance is the probability that two orders will disagree about the optimal choice from a randomly-selected available set. In the second essay, we study representative democracy and contrast it with direct democracy. The key question is whether representative democracy, with its practical advantages, succeeds in implementing the choices that the group would make under the more normatively attractive direct democracy. We find that, in general, it does not. We analyze the theoretical setting in which the two methods are most likely to lead to the same choices, minimizing potential sources of distortion. We show that even in this case, where the normative recommendation of direct democracy is clear, representative democracy may not elect the candidate with this ordering. In the third essay, we present the results of an experiment that explores whether women skip more questions than men on multiple-choice tests. The experimental test consists of practice questions from SAT II subject tests; we vary the size of the penalty imposed for a wrong answer and the salience of the evaluative nature of the task. We find that when no penalty is assessed for a wrong answer, all test-takers answer every question. But, when there is a small penalty for wrong answers and the task is explicitly framed as an SAT, women answer significantly fewer questions than men. We show that, conditional on their knowledge of the material, test-takers who skip questions do significantly worse on our experimental test, putting women and more risk averse test-takers at a disadvantage. / Economics

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act mandate all children be included in state and district assessments to measure their progress. IDEA, NCLB, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) require students have access to accommodations necessary for their participation in mandated testing. Due to problems secondary to their disability, students who are deaf and hard-of-hearing (D/HH) may have difficulty participating in testing programs designed for the general population. In order to have equal access to standardized testing, D/HH students may need to use testing accommodations.The purposes of this study were to: a) document the use of testing accommodations by students who are D/HH, b) identify the types and frequency of testing accommodations required by D/HH students attending general education classes in Arizona public schools, and c) to analyze the relationships between type and degree of hearing loss and SAT-9 achievement for students who are D/HH in Arizona public schools.The participants included 62 students in the first year of the study, and 53 students in the second year. All participants had diagnosed hearing losses and attended general education classes with support from teachers of the D/HH and/or other support personnel.Extended Time was the most frequently required accommodation. Principal components analysis resulted in clustering of accommodations variables into three components in 2002: Time and Administration, Presentation, and Student Directed, and four components in 2003: Presentation and Administration, Time and Materials, Response, and Student Directed. The accommodations used and their clustering were similar to those reported in the literature. Type of hearing loss was found to significantly affect reading achievement even when controlling for testing accommodations. The interaction between type and degree of loss significantly affected language achievement. Results demonstrated the reading and language achievement performance of students with mild and high frequency hearing loss fell behind students having greater levels of hearing loss. The use of testing accommodations resulted in mixed effects on student reading and language achievement performance. Changes in language scores, but not in reading scores, were found.

Isn’t the report card just a way to distinguish the “have” schools from the “have not” schools? This is the ninth in a series of frequently asked questions that can be found on the school performance section of the Fraser Institute’s website. Importantly, the report cards in question are both produced and published by the Fraser Institute, an independent public policy research group that ranks Canadian elementary schools on a set of indicators gleaned from the results of provincial standardized testing. While the Fraser Institute answers this question with a simple No, the thesis research presented here uses a mixed methods approach to examine the accuracy of this simplistic answer. Using socioeconomic data and regression analysis, this research endeavors to uncover if standardized test results can indeed stand independently of class and other demographic factors to produce a valid point of school comparison. This research also provides an in depth exploration of the Fraser Institute’s annual elementary school report card from the perspective of current elementary teachers in Ontario. Lastly, this research presents findings regarding the ways that parents of elementary school children use and understand the Fraser Institute’s school ratings.

Isn’t the report card just a way to distinguish the “have” schools from the “have not” schools? This is the ninth in a series of frequently asked questions that can be found on the school performance section of the Fraser Institute’s website. Importantly, the report cards in question are both produced and published by the Fraser Institute, an independent public policy research group that ranks Canadian elementary schools on a set of indicators gleaned from the results of provincial standardized testing. While the Fraser Institute answers this question with a simple No, the thesis research presented here uses a mixed methods approach to examine the accuracy of this simplistic answer. Using socioeconomic data and regression analysis, this research endeavors to uncover if standardized test results can indeed stand independently of class and other demographic factors to produce a valid point of school comparison. This research also provides an in depth exploration of the Fraser Institute’s annual elementary school report card from the perspective of current elementary teachers in Ontario. Lastly, this research presents findings regarding the ways that parents of elementary school children use and understand the Fraser Institute’s school ratings.

This thesis examines the impacts of inclement weather days on AP exam scores in public schools, specifically low socioeconomic districts, and the assessment of their current closure procedures. By investigating the potential disruption in scores by inclement weather days, I can create a new dataset in analyzing a field that has yet to be studied through this lens, in addition to advising future policy for district superintendents and state government officials. The areas studied include Massachusetts and Georgia, representing states that are properly prepared for inclement weather closures and are under-prepared for inclement weather, respectively. I use two research methods to fully understand the quantitative and qualitative effects of inclement weather closures. The first is a quantitative analysis of district-level data on inclement weather days and AP exam scores over the past five years. To accomplish this, I contacted public-school districts in the two states involved in the case study to get raw data on school closures and combine this with already available datasets on AP exam score performance. The second is a qualitative account of inclement weather days from teachers and superintendents from districts across both states to establish their opinions regarding school closures and investigate the decision-making process in canceling school. In this qualitative assessment, I observe the roles that socioeconomic status and public transportation, among other factors, play in cancelations. This thesis seeks to challenge the argument proposed by previous research that snow days have no effect on test performance. Previously, this was measured by looking at state-wide exams. By using AP exams as a performance measure instead, a more direct impact on exam scores is expected due to the immovable testing dates and content- specific nature of the exams. Policy recommendations are given to accommodate the negative relationship between closures and test scores, given socioeconomic status.

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While many literary sources outline the product development process, few make mention of the prototyping and testing stage. This thesis suggests that because of its importance in the product development process, "Testing" should be documented as a major step and not just listed as a side note. As part of the testing step, it is suggested that standardized, in-use, and market tests be used to properly evaluate a product. While many rely solely on standardized tests to validate their products, effective in-use tests can be another vital tool that can prove the performance of the product in more specific and relevant applications. In-use tests are a major focus in this thesis and the process of developing and using these in-use tests is explored. A case study is used to prove that effective product development will follow the outlined testing procedure. Also, it shows that in-use testing, combined with other types of testing, can be a vital tool to ensuring the successful launch of a newly developed product. As a result of the case study, the traditional new product development process is amended and a set of guidelines are proposed for use in constructing a successful testing methodology for the new product development process.

Traditionally, appeals for improving the teaching of psychology at the post-secondary level have focused on increasing teacher training and motivation. However, wide-scale success may be limited because both approaches involve significant demands on teachers' time. I describe two recommendations that may improve teaching while requiring minimal time investment from individual teachers. The first is the development of an end-of-major assessment taken by undergraduate psychology majors that would provide valuable feedback to teachers on which areas of the curriculum need improvement. The second recommendation is to create a new database of research on teaching and learning that focuses on streamlining relevant information and improving user-friendliness through the use of a wiki interface. The feedback from the end-of-major assessment would link to the sections of the database that might prove most beneficial for improvement of the curricular areas indicated. Suggestions are provided for immediate implementation of both recommendations.

The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes of administrators, counselors, agriscience teachers, and students towards the high school agriscience programs in Mississippi. It was also to determine the average scores of students on a criterion-based exam, and to determine if there was a correlation between the attitude scales of the agriscience teachers, counselors, administrators, students, and the student scores on the exam. The study used a descriptive survey and a descriptive-correlational design. Three different surveys were sent out to 356 agriscience teachers, counselors, and administrators at schools with either a Concepts of Agriscience Technology course or an Introduction to Agriscience course. Superintendents were asked for their permission, and subsequently, 14 teachers agreed to let their students be surveyed and tested on a criterion-based exam created by the Research and Curriculum Unit. The surveys asked the teachers, counselors, and administrators about their attitudes towards the two agriscience programs using four scales: science integration into the agricultural curriculum, the agricultural industry and agriscience courses in general, standardized testing in agricultural programs, and science credit for completion of agriscience courses. The students were surveyed about their attitudes towards agriscience programs in general. Based on 201 usable surveys from the agriscience teachers, counselors, and administrators, and 156 student surveys and test scores, data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and Pearson Product Moment correlations. It was determined that there were statistically significant correlations between the attitude scales of the teachers, counselors, and administrators. There was only one statistically significant correlation to the student test scores and that was the administrator attitude scale about science integration. This relationship was determined to be of a moderate negative relationship based on Davis’ (1971) conventions.

No description available.