This study was designed to determine if individuals in administrative support occupations are equipped with the necessary reading skills, including proofreading, verifying, and comprehending detail, needed to perform efficiently on the job. To address the problem of the study, the following specific research questions were answered: 1. What is the reading level of documents actually used by selected administrative support workers? 2. What level of proficiency do selected administrative support workers display in reading office documents? 3. Does reading proficiency differ for them by age, educational level, length of job experience, or by job level. Participants were 60 administrative support workers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Participants completed tests to measure their performance on the three skills. Additionally, these individuals provided examples of reading they complete as part of their work. Findings from the study are as follows: 1. The average reading level for all documents submitted was 11.6. 2. The mean for all participants on the total test was 53.15 with a minimum score of 40 and a maximum score of 58 out of a total of sixty points. 3. No significant differences were found in the reading proficiency level of participants according to age, educational level, length of job experience, or job title. Based on the findings and conclusions in this study a number of implications for classroom instruction and further research are provided. / Master of Science

Three major principles of learning a chord keyboarding task were investigated. Five subjects were taught 18 characters on a chord keyboard, then practiced improving their keying speed for about 60 hours. The first objective of the study was to observe long-term learning on a keyboarding task. The performance, in characters typed per minute, was recorded over the entire range of the experiment. Typing skill improved quickly in the beginning and then slowed, but performance had not reached a stable peak by the end of the experiment. The second objective of this study was to determine a function that describes performance progress from initial training to a high keying speed. Five functions were evaluated; a function which predicts the logarithm of the dependent variable (characters per minute) from the logarithm of the regressor variable provided a good fit to the actual data. The final form of the equation was CPM; = e^B₀T_i^B₁ where CPM_i; = performance in characters per minute on the i-th interval, T_i = the i-th interval of practice, and B₀ and B₁ are fitted coefficients. The second objective also considered the form that T_i (from the above equation) should take. Performance can be predicted from number of repetitions such as trials, or from amount of practice such as hours. Both trials and time were used as predictor variables and both provided equally accurate predictions of typing speed. Both also provided excellent fits in conjunction with the Log-Log equation. Thus, it appears the Log-Log function is fairly robust in predicting performance from different variables. The third objective was to investigate how many trials of performance are needed before the entire learning function can be reasonably determined. In this experiment, subjects practiced for an extended period of time (about 60 hours) so a fairly complete progression of performance could be gathered. Yet, it would be more convenient to collect data for only a few hours and deduce the ensuing performance of the subject. The coefficients of the Log-Log function were determined using only the first 25, 50, 100, 150, and 200 of the initial performance points (out of about 550 total actual data points). The mean squared error (MSE) was calculated for each of these fits and compared to the MSE of the fit using all points. It appears that at least 50 performance data points are required to reduce the error to a reasonably acceptable level. / Master of Science

Ed. D.

Master of Science

The United States Employment Service has implemented a recently developed testing program. The Validity Generalization (VG) Testing Program, adopted its name from the meta-analytic technique which cumulates the findings of test validation studies. For this testing program, predictors were developed for five job families based on a validity generalization study of 515 validation studies. The Employment Service claims that these predictors are valid and virtually all jobs are covered in the five job families. This study is a direct test of the validity of one of the five predictors, Job Family IV Validity Generalization percentile scores. (The Employment Service estimates its true validity is .53.) Secondly, two potential moderators of that predictor's validity were investigated: jobs and locations. Three "computing and account recording" clerical jobs and two locations were examined. Finally, evidence of whether general abilities were better predictors of performance than specific abilities was examined, since the testing program's predictors are comprised of composite, general ability scores. A concurrent validation study was conducted with 219 clerical bank employees. Two predictors, the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB) and the American Bankers Association's test battery, were administered. Two criteria measures were obtained, supervisory ratings on the Descriptive Rating Scale for all subjects, and, objective measures - strokes per hour - for proof operators. The observed validity for Job Family IV's predictor with the global DRS criterion was .16, Observed validity with a composite of DRS dimensions was .19. Corrected for attenuation, those coefficients were .18 and .20 respectively. However, general cognitive ability measures appeared to be slightly better than the percentile scores at predicting performance. While there was no statistical evidence of moderators, the relatively small effect size resulted in low power for the tests and may account for the results. Nevertheless, the evidence raised questions about the possible existence of situational moderators. Finally, measures of general ability did not appear to predict performance better than measures of specific abilities. / Ph. D.

Thirty-six randomly selected and assigned, ninth grade, high school students participated in this study which was designed to examine the Impact of a summarization strategy on the comprehension performance of average readers under varied text pattern conditions. The strategy consisted of two phases. Phase I, called BACCA, included the processing steps of brainstorming, accuracy check and arrangement, completing, correcting, and adding. Phase II, DIGC, included the rules of deletion, invention, generalization, and combining to construct the summary. While the treatment group received Instruction with the summarization strategy, a control group received Instruction in question answering but no direct Instruction in summary writing. Results from a two-way analysis of variance conducted on comprehension performance indicated that a significant difference existed between the two treatment groups with regard to total comprehension scores. Differential performance was revealed for the selected text patterns. Performances on chronological and compare contrast passages were not significantly different between the treatment and control, while on the cause-effect passage, a significant difference was revealed In favor of the summarization group. For the naturally occurring text there was a significant interaction effect for treatment by time. Qualitative analysis revealed a difference in the quality of written summaries with regard to the number of main ideas, details produced, accuracy in reporting the content of the passage, and completeness of the writings favoring the treatment group. Finally, an attitude survey reflected positive opinions by the participants toward both conditions. / Ed. D.

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which age-related bias exists when ACT Mathematics test scores are used as the sole predictor of future academic performance in entry-level college mathematics courses. A secondary purpose was to investigate the extent to which academic and attitudinal variables, in conjunction with ACT Math scores, a) lessen or eliminate the age-related bias, and b) enhance the prediction of course grades and posttest scores in freshman level mathematics courses. ACT Mathematics test scores were used to predict course grades and posttest scores of students enrolled in Developmental Math and General Math classes at Bluefield State College, WV, or one of its community college components. Course grades of Developmental Math students and posttest scores of General Math students were found to be under-predicted for nontraditional-age students and over-predicted for traditional-age students. No differences were found in predictions of posttest scores for Developmental Math students or in predictions of course grades for General Math students. When attitudinal and other academic variables were introduced to the regression equation, there was less evidence of prediction bias and a significant increase in the amount of variance explained in the criterion measures. / Ed. D.

This qualitative investigation into differences between intellectually gifted sixth grade students and sixth grade students in regular education programs was conducted with two questions as the focus: 1. Are there differences other than IQ between these two groups of students on a selection of school-related variables? 2. Are there sixth grade students in the regular education program who exhibit the same profile on the selected variables as do the intellectually gifted sixth grade students? An analysis of forty variables held by each of the 129 students in three Gifted Center Classes and two regular education classes indicated differences exist between the two groups in some areas other than intelligence. Students in the Gifted Center obtained significantly higher scores on five of the six Biographical Inventory Form U subtests, which measured academic performance, creativity, artistic potential, leadership and educational orientation. The results of the subtest Vocational Maturity were not significant. Differences in performance were noted on the SRA Achievement Series with the gifted students achieving higher test scores than regular education students. Both groups, however, scored commensurate with measured abilities as indicated by the Educational Ability Score (EAS). Report card notations indicate that gifted students are more respectful of authority, more courteous, more respectful of property and exercise more self-control than students in regular education programs. On a Moreno sociogram, results were significant in only one category. Gifted students were more readily selected by peers as students preferred to study with than students in regular education programs. The discriminant analysis indicated that 100% of the intellectually gifted students were placed or identified properly. Six students or 10.5% of the population in the regular education program exhibited profiles similar to that of the intellectually gifted students. / Ed. D.

The aim of the writer in giving the Stenquist Mechanical Aptitude Test as a basis for this study was to try to find a reliable method of selecting the boys to be admitted to the shop classes in vocational and technical high schools.

Current literacy assessments are focused on a single mode of meaning-making (reading and writing, whether oral or written) and assume that literacy and language are "fixed systems"-- comprised of discrete skills that can be taught and measured in isolation. This validation and privileging of a single mode of assessment has resulted in children labeled "At-risk" falling significantly behind those without this label. This study investigates what a teacher can learn from a diverse range of assessment forms and modes. In a fourth-grade self-contained classroom, students engaged in multimodal assessments and created multimodal portfolios. Five students labeled "At-risk" were chosen for a deeper analysis. Students' artifacts, interviews, and observations served as the main data sources. Both narrative analysis and analysis of narrative were utilized to generate a more complete narrative of these five students as meaning makers and communicators. The general findings suggest that these children labeled "At-risk" were, in fact, able to engage in multimodal thinking and communication from a critical stance.