The identification of preferred and reinforcing stimuli has long been a focus of behavior analysts in applied settings. Research has primarily focused on different methodologies for assessing whether stimuli are preferred and there has been additional research on identifying under what conditions those stimuli will function as reinforcers. Recently, research has begun to examine responses and reinforcers from a behavioral economic perspective. The present study compared responding in a situation where the price of one item was increased, but the price of alternative items remained the same, to a situation where the price of all available items increased. Multiple stimulus with replacement (MS) preference assessment methodology was used and price was altered by increasing the distance of the stimuli from the participant. During the first assessment, the item chosen most frequently in the first session was systematically moved 6 - 24 inches beyond the other items during subsequent sessions. During the second assessment, all items were systematically moved 6 - 24 inches beyond the starting point in front of the participant during subsequent sessions. Results for the first assessment indicated that for four of the five participants, consumption of the target item decreased as a function of increased price for that item. Results for the second assessment indicated that at high costs, clear preference for one item was observed for three of the five participants. Taken collectively, these results suggest that response effort is a variable that should be taken into consideration when evaluating effective treatments for individuals with disabilities. Preference and reinforcer effectiveness may shift as individuals are presented with tasks that require increased response effort in terms of reaching or moving about their environment. / Educational Psychology

Advocates of privatizing education suggest that traditional public schools are not adequately preparing students for college, career readiness, and global citizenship (Lobosco, 2019; Schneider and Berkshire, 2020; Tienken and Mullen, 2016). Charter school supporters believe charter school students perform better than public school children on state standardized tests (Lubienski and Lubienski, 2014). Advocates for traditional public schools promote the idea that there are no significant differences between public and charter schools in academic achievement (Chen, 2020b; Fischler, 2021). This study compares public and charter elementary school students in terms of their reading and math assessment scores, both as measured by the Virginia Standard of Learning (SOL) for the 2018-2019 school year. Data were collected and analyzed on 642 students enrolled in three of Virginia's elementary charter schools and three traditional public schools in Loudoun County and Richmond City. SOL assessment data for the public and charter schools were compared for the overall student population per grade level to determine if there is a significant difference for the 2018-2019 school year. A two-way ANOVA was utilized in this study. Results indicated no significant differences in the reading mean SOL assessment scores between traditional public elementary and public charter school students: F (1, 636) = .119, p = .730. Additionally, results showed no significant interaction between school type and grade level between traditional public elementary and public charter schools: F (2, 636) = 1.076, p = .342. However, findings revealed a significant difference in the reading SOL assessment scores between grade levels of traditional public elementary schools and public charter schools: F (2, 636) = 4.473, p = .012. Furthermore, results from the math analysis indicated no statistical differences in math SOL scores between traditional public elementary schools and public charter schools: F (1, 636) = .000, p = .997. Also, findings indicated no significant difference in the math SOL scores between the grade levels of traditional public elementary and public charter schools: F (2, 636) = .520, p = .595. / Doctor of Education / Advocates of privatizing education suggest that traditional public "brick-and-mortar" schools are not adequately preparing students for college, career readiness, and global citizenship (Lobosco, 2019; Tienken and Mullen, 2016; Schneider and Berkshire, 2020). Charter school supporters believe charter school students perform better than public school children on state standardized tests (Lubienski and Lubienski, 2014). Advocates for traditional public schools promote the idea that there are no significant differences between public and charter schools in academic achievement (Chen, 2020b; Fischler, 2021). This study compares public and charter elementary school students in terms of their reading and math assessment scores, both as measured by the Virginia Standard of Learning (SOL) for the 2018-2019 school year. Data were collected and analyzed on 642 students enrolled in three of Virginia's elementary charter schools and three traditional public schools in Loudoun County and Richmond City. SOL assessment data for the public and charter schools were compared for the overall student population per grade level to determine if there is a significant difference for the 2018-2019 school year. This study did not reveal any significant differences in reading and math SOL scores between traditional elementary public schools and public elementary charter schools. However, findings in this study revealed significant differences in reading SOL scores on average among grade levels. Conversely, findings did not reveal any differences in math SOL assessment scores on average between grade levels of traditional public elementary school and public elementary charter school students.

This briefing aims to clarify and highlight ways in which the spread, possession and (mis)use of SALW and related armed violence issues can be relevant in conflict assessments, and how they can be integrated better within such assessments. It employs the conflict assessment framework set out in DFID¿s conflict assessment guidelines, and thus aims particularly to assist people who may be: commissioning and developing terms of reference for a specific assessment; undertaking a desk-based and/or field assessment; and those taking forward the analysis to the development of programming responses. There already exists the potential for SALW issues to be addressed within DFID¿s existing conflict assessment guidelines, and thus this paper does not suggest that DFID¿s methodology has to change but rather `opened-up¿ to include SALW more fully within their analyses and the strategies they generate.

The goal of this study was to determine if performance -based tests should be routinely administered to students in computer application courses. The purpose was to determine the most appropriate mode of testing for individuals taking a computer applications course. The study is divided into areas of assessment, personality traits, and computer attitudes.

<p dir="ltr">Compared to individuals low in schizotypal traits, those with elevated schizotypal traits present with social deficits and are at greater risk for developing schizophrenia-spectrum disorders and other forms of psychopathology. Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) is a powerful tool for understanding the real-world behaviors of schizophrenia-spectrum populations. Although studies have effectively utilized EMA to examine important aspects of social interactions (i.e., how often people interact [likelihood], the complexity of the content in these interactions [depth], and how much pleasure they derive from these interactions [enjoyment]) in people with schizophrenia, few have explored differences in social interactions using EMA across schizotypal traits (i.e., positive, negative, and disorganized). In this study, we used EMA to collect data from three universities. Our primary aim was to evaluate if positive, negative, and disorganized schizotypal traits in college students were significantly linked to individuals’ likelihood, depth, and enjoyment of social interactions in their everyday lives. Our secondary aim was to investigate whether affect and stress play a role in individuals’ likelihood, depth, and enjoyment of social interactions. Results revealed that negative schizotypal traits more strongly predicted social interaction depth and enjoyment compared to positive and disorganized traits. Contrary to hypotheses, positive affect was a better predictor of social interaction outcomes than negative affect and stress. Several notable interactions between schizotypal traits and affect also emerged. Overall, this study increases understanding of how schizotypal traits and affect impact daily social interactions. These findings may inform future research aimed at improving and individualizing interventions for social functioning deficits in individuals with elevated positive, negative, and/or disorganized schizotypal traits.</p>

Thesis advisor: Ina V. S. Mullis / TIMSS and PIRLS assess representative samples of students at regular intervals, measuring trends in student achievement and student contexts for learning. Because individual students are not tracked over time, analysis of international large-scale assessment data is usually conducted cross-sectionally. Gustafsson (2007) proposed examining the data longitudinally by analyzing relationships between country-level trends in background constructs and trends in student achievement. Through longitudinal analysis of international large-scale assessment data, it becomes possible to mitigate some of the confounding factors in the analysis. This dissertation extends this country-level approach to subpopulations within countries. Adapting a pseudo-panel approach from the econometrics literature (Deaton, 1985), the proposed approach creates subpopulations by grouping students based on demographic characteristics, such as gender or parental education. Following grouping, the subpopulations with the same demographic characteristics are linked across cycles and the aggregated subpopulation means are treated as panel data and analyzed through longitudinal data analysis techniques. As demonstrated herein the primary advantages of the subpopulation approach are that it allows for analysis of subgroup differences, and it captures within-country relationships in the data that are not possible to analyze at country level. Illustrative analysis examines the relationship between early literacy activities and PIRLS reading achievement using PIRLS 2001 and PIRLS 2011 data. Results from the subpopulation approach are compared with student-level and country-level cross-sectional results as well as country-level longitudinal results. In addition, within-country analysis examines the subpopulation-level relationship between early literacy activities and PIRLS reading achievement, multiple group analysis compares regression coefficient estimates between boys and girls and across parental education subgroups, and mediation analysis examines the extent that partaking in early literacy activities can explain differences between boys and girls in PIRLS reading achievement. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Miami University, Dept. of Educational Leadership, 2006. / Title from second page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 72-77).

The intense focus on standards and accountability is rapidly altering the education environment. Often the gauge for measuring school effectiveness is performance on high- stake state tests. In this retrospective cohort comparison study, I observe the relation between the use of curriculum-based measures (CBMs) for reading and change on a state test for reading after implementation of systematic decision making (SDM). Over a span of three years, two student cohorts in two elementary schools were observed. In each two-year cohort, students began in third and then moved to fourth grade: Cohort One (2009 - 2011) and Cohort Two (2010 - 2012). Both cohorts participated in fall, winter, and spring [F-W-S] benchmark screening for Passage Reading Fluency (PRF) and took a state test. Additionally, during the 2011-2012 academic year, SDM was implemented for Cohort Two using reading CBMs. This study addressed three questions: (a) What is the affect on reading growth (OAKS-Reading) in the context of SDM with CBMs? (b) What is the correlation between [F-W-S] PRF and OAKS Reading? and (c) What is the relation between within-year growth rates for students at risk and not at risk in the context of SDM with CBMs? I used an independent samples t-test to examine the across year change in reading for both cohorts (OAKS-Reading) to determine whether the implementation of SDM resulted in a significant difference between cohorts. For Cohort Two (using a SDM model), I correlated benchmark screening within-year measures (easyCBM) and OAKS Reading. Finally, I calculated growth rates for at-risk and not-at-risk students within a SDM model to examine whether that model demonstrated evidence of accelerated growth in at-risk students relative to their not-at-risk peers. Results did not indicate a strong relation between SDM and the large-scale, outcome assessment (OAKS-Reading). A Pearson product-moment correlation indicated a strong positive correlation between the formative measure PRF and the large-scale, outcome assessment OAKS-Reading. Results showed both risk categories had accelerated growth in reading fluency between fall and winter compared to between winter and spring. Implications for school practice and research are discussed.

Es wird über die Entwicklung und Erprobung von Instrumenten zur Messung von Ingenieurskreativität und Fachinteresse am Studium der Elektrotechnik berichtet. Im Fall des Fachinteresses wird ein Algorithmus vorgeschlagen um effizient Skalen maßzuschneidern. Für spezifische Kreativität werden die Schwierigkeiten der Erfassung diskutiert und erste Möglichkeit der Lösung dieser Probleme diskutiert. / The development and testing of two scales measuring creativity in engineering and vocational interest is reported. Concerning the scale of vocational interest an algorithm for the efficient tailoring of such scales is proposed. In case of specific creativity the difficulties of the measurement are discussed and first solutions developed.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether altering parameters of positive and negative reinforcement in identical ways could influence behavior maintained by each in different ways. Three undergraduate students participated in a series of assessments designed to identify preferred and aversive sounds with similar reinforcing values. Following reinforcer identification, we conducted parameter sensitivity assessments for both positive and negative reinforcers. Parameter manipulations influenced behavior in the same way across reinforcement processes for two participants. However, for one participant, the way in which parameter manipulations influenced behavior differed according to the reinforcement process. Our results suggest that, for at least some individuals, positive and negative sound reinforcement processes do not influence behavior in identical ways. Clinical and theoretical implications are discussed.