This study investigated: (1) the effectiveness of computer coaching to improve SAT scores and (2) whether or not there is a difference between the effectiveness of computer coaching when implemented individually or in a small (3 to 4) group process which allowed peer interaction. A posttest-only control group design was used. The difference in posttest scores of the two treatement groups and the uncoached control group was used to determine the effects of coaching. The 93 subjects were 9th, 10th, and 11th grade geometry students at a high school in Santa Rosa County, Florida. Significant differences in means were found in the following: (1) Mathematics computer coaching to improve SAT scores based on a strategy of individual computer usage. (2) Mathematics computer coaching to improve SAT scores based on a strategy of small group (3 to 4) usage which allowed peer interaction within the group. (3) Verbal computer coaching to improve SAT scores based on a strategy of small group (3 to 4) usage which allowed for peer interaction within the group. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-09, Section: A, page: 2847. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1984.

This study describes the effects on student and class achievement of the interactions between class size and student ability, class ability, teacher qualifications, instructional method and heterogeneity of student ability. Study data on 1,022 high school students enrolled in 50 life science and physical science classes were obtained from the 1978-1979 nationwide field study of the Individualized Science Instructional System (ISIS). To analyze the interaction effects on student level achievement a multi-level analysis approach was used. To analyze the interaction effects on class level achievement a traditional multiple linear regression approach was used. Results of the student and class level analyses indicated that class size did interact with class ability and teacher qualifications. A weak interaction between class size and heterogeneity of student ability was also found. No interactions between class size and student ability or instructional method were revealed. The author concludes that the question of class size should be studied in a multivariate context with particular attention to interactive relationships between class size and other student and class level variables. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-06, Section: A, page: 1764. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

The nature of reading comprehension as it relates to different cultural or language groups who speak English is an interesting topic not fully explored. The purpose of this study was to provide some psycholinguistic and statistical evidence regarding the reading abilities in English of native speakers compared to nonnative speakers of English. Reading skills believed to underlie reading comprehension were hypothesized to be important elements of a person's ability to perform a reading comprehension task (as measured by the cloze test). The hypothesized crucial reading skills were word meaning, decoding, anaphoric reference, and sentence syntax. / The general procedure of the study was to (a) develop a construct (model) of reading comprehension based on statistical analyses performed on the data resulting from the administration of tests of reading skills to native speakers of English and (b) assess the validity of that construct for nonnative students by comparing the reading performance of nonnative speakers with that of native speakers. In making the comparison, the following analyses were employed: path analysis, Hotelling's T-square, and discriminant analysis. / The data for native speakers came from a study by Roblyer (1978). The subjects consisted of 119 ninth grade students from two Leon County high schools. The additional data for this study were gathered from 100 ninth and tenth grade students in Luchetti high school in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The test scores from these native and nonnative speakers of English were compared. Results from path analysis indicated that for native speakers decoding, anaphoric reference, and sentence syntax had significant direct effects on reading comprehension (cloze test). However, for nonnative speakers, decoding and sentence syntax directly influenced reading comprehension, but anaphoric reference hardly had any effect. This difference was attributed to psycholinguistic factors. Hotelling's T-square revealed that there was a significant difference between the mean vectors of reading tests for the two groups and discriminant analysis revealed that the differences (discrimination) between the two groups could be attributed to differences in scores on tests of word meaning and decoding. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-06, Section: A, page: 1765. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

A qualitative study looking at the nature, development and utility of questions for evaluation research was conducted within the framework of several State of Florida agencies. The majority of the effort took place within the Office of Evaluation and Management Review, Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (DHRS), and the Planning and Evaluation Section, Office of Planning and Budgeting, Executive Office of the Governor (EOG-OPB). / Research activities were organized around three general issues. First, what types of questions are being asked by individual agencies. To answer this question, a classification scheme was developed and applied to 114 questions drawn from 44 studies conducted by the agencies participating in the study. Questions were analyzed and classified as either (1) description of program, (2) description of clients, (3) impact, (4) research, (5) policy issues, or (6) cost. Results of this analysis showed questions fall into one of the first three categories about 75% of the time. / The second activity was a qualitative investigation into the actual development of questions within Evaluation units. This involved a number of interviews with individuals who participate in the question development process. In addition to the interviews, a survey was utilized to obtain information about the relative input of participants in the question development process and to gather information about the evaluators and their background. This investigation identified no single developmental path for evaluation questions; rather a variety of formats were utilized within each office. / The final activity concerned the utility of evaluation questions. First, principle evaluation report users were interviewed to assess their feelings towards studies prepared by the offices participating in this study. Then, several workshops were conducted with evaluation personnel to expose them to a formal question identification procedure (The Evaluation Framework) designed for use in state agencies. Results of these two activities (1) showed users to be generally satisfied with evaluation studies but not totally in agreement with evaluators about what types of questions should be included and (2) generally in favor of the methods and approach to evaluation presented in the Evaluation Framework but concerned about the lack of flexibility associated with this approach. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-09, Section: A, page: 2743. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

This investigation measured evaluation utilization in a large state agency and used a case study approach to investigate conditions that relate to utilization of evaluation reports. One significant contribution of this study was development of a strategy to measure influence of evaluation information on decisions and implementation status of recommendations. The measurement strategy produced scale values for reports, enabling a comparative rating of evaluation reports in terms of utilization. The ratings identified high-use and low-use reports. / Contrast of high-use and low-use reports provided a basis for assessing the potency of various utilization predictors reported in the literature. The results indicated that relevance to decision-making is a major factor influencing utilization in this context. Other variables clearly supported by this study included political and organizational circumstances, focus on manipulable variables and user characteristics. Some evidence suggested support for user involvement in study formulation, credibility of information, evaluator credibility in terms of program knowledge, and quality as important variables. / The findings also indicated that content of evaluation information is an important factor to consider in investigations of utilization. Recommendations in high-use studies were less variable in content compared to recommendations in low-use studies, and they tended to focus on program eligibility issues, service improvements, or improvements in management. Surprisingly, the findings suggest that policy-oriented recommendations and recommendations requiring interprogram or interagency action, even though harder to implement, had more influence on the decisions to implement the recommendations than the less challenging recommendations requiring only action by program managers. / The validity of the findings is enhanced by the procedures used to ensure reliability of the data and by the researcher's prior experience with the agency studied. The applicability of these findings to a general theory of utilization, however, is limited by the restricted setting of this investigation. It is recommended that further research expand the investigation of utilization, through contrast of high- and low-use studies, to other sizes and types of organizations. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-05, Section: A, page: 1704. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

This study sought to determine the loss in measurement precision at a passing ability and at other abilities of interest resulting from the use of nonoptimal, but reasonable and relevant, item difficulty distribution shapes. / Five alternatives to the optimal peaked distribution shape were compared on the basis of their precision relative to the optimal peaked distribution. The distribution shapes were represented by ten tests built in two ways. One set of tests was constructed using item difficulties from an existing minimum competency mastery test. These tests will be referred to as real tests. The other five tests were generated from a simulated, infinitely large item bank. / The relative precision curves produced by the different alternative item combinations were compared to determine which distribution shape generated the greatest precision in the region of the passing ability. As an empirical approach to the question, actual person-item responses were used to estimate abilities and mastery level on each of the five real tests. Mastery classifications by the original long test were used to identify the misclassifications made by each of the real tests. / The distributions centered on the passing score yielded similar error rates, but they differed in the pattern of classification errors made. The number of false passes and false fails were related to whether the test's area of maximum precision was above or below the passing ability. This implies that the types of classification errors made, as well as their number, may to some extent be controlled by the builder of a test. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-01, Section: A, page: 0159. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1985.

This study investigated the effects of a fixed and variable entry procedure on bias and information of a Bayesian adaptive test. It was found that neither the fixed nor the variable entry procedure produced biased ability estimates on the average. Both procedures did produce, however, biased ability estimates at the extremes of the ability distribution. Both procedures produced peaked and asymmetric information curves, rather than ideal flat curves. Relative efficiency curves indicated that at no point along the ability continuum was one procedure more efficient than the other. The two procedures chose different item subsets for administration. In almost half the cases, the variable entry procedure required more items to reach termination. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-08, Section: A, page: 3013. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

The purpose of the present study was twofold: (1) to determine the relationship between sample size and equating error produced by the Tucker and Rasch methods; and, (2) to compare the efficiency of the two methods when utilizing small sample sizes. The aim was to examine equating error at selected points on the raw score scale corresponding to the 20th, 40th, 60th, and 80th percentiles, as well as the average error over all examinees and all score points, using five sample sizes of 25, 50, 75, 100, and 500. / The results of the study indicated that the relationship between equating error and sample size was approximately linear and negative. The Rasch method generally produced slightly more error and bias than the Tucker method when using small sample sizes. For the data used in the study, the expected value of equating error for the Rasch method is reduced with higher selected scores, whereas for the Tucker method, it increases as the selected scores deviate from the average score. The minimum number of examinees for equating with the two methods as well as further investigations were suggested. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-12, Section: A, page: 4369. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

The primary purpose of this investigation was the development and testing of a measurement instrument for the assessment of traditional and contemporary work-related values in university faculty and administrators. Additionally, an analysis of the subscales from the Worrell Contemporary Work Values Inventory (WCWVI), Traditional and Contemporary and subscales from the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ), Intrinsic and Extrinsic was completed from both a correlational and causal perspective. Subjects for the study were faculty and administrators (N = 243) representing five universities in Eastern Canada. Each subject completed a socio-demographic Data Sheet, the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire, and the recently designed Worrell Contemporary Work Values Inventory. The dependent variables in the study were the subscales from the WCWVI and the MSQ. The independent variables were categorical in nature and consisted of administrative responsibilities (two levels) and number of years of work experience (four levels). / To determine the reliability of the items on the WCWVI, factor analysis, item analysis and test-retest correlations were carried out. coefficient alphas on the final version of the WCWVI were (.79) Total, (.73) Traditional, and (.77) Contemporary. Test-retest reliability coefficients over three months were (.76) Total, (.73) Traditional, and (.72) Contemporary. The construct and content validities of the WCWVI Traditional and Contemporary subscales were of a questionable nature due to the significant positive correlation (.39) between the subscales. The investigator had designed the WCWVI subscales in an inverse pattern. High average means on one scale and low average means on the other scale would have helped to support the construct validity of the WCWVI. However, both scales reported high grand means, Traditional (29.70) and Contemporary (37.70). / Hypotheses relative to the investigation were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment correlations and two-factor ANOVA. A significant positive correlation (.62) was found between perceived Traditional work-related values and perceived Intrinsic job satisfaction. A 2 x 4 ANOVA revealed that administrators perceived higher average Traditional work-related values than non-administrators with 11-15 years of work experience. Both administrators and non-administrators reported perceived higher average Intrinsic job satisfaction with more years of work experience. Conclusions based upon the research findings of this study were that the WCWVI did not measure Traditional and Contemporary work-related values as predicted. As well, there was no consistent relationship between the WCWVI subscales and MSQ subscales. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-02, Section: A, page: 0374. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.

This study investigated how the collapsing of categories impacted the information function and the convergence of the iterative item calibration in polychotomous Item Response Theory. The scores of 1000 examinees on twenty-four twelve-item performance assessment test batteries were simulated. The experimental factors were direction of category collapsing (upward and downward), three levels of item difficulty ($-$1.0, 0.0, and 1.0), three levels of item discrimination (0.4, 0.9, and 1.6), and two levels of inter-rater reliability (.90 and.95). PARSCALE was used to calibrate the tests and provide the information data. Factorial repeated measures analysis was used on the three experimental designs for maximum item information, total item information, and EM-cycles. / The results demonstrated that (1) combining raters' evaluations reduced the effective item discrimination of an item and increased the range of step difficulties, but left item difficulty essentially unchanged; (2) overall, the collapsing of categories increased item discrimination, reduced the number of EM-cycles and total information, and left item difficulty and maximum information essentially unchanged; and (3) within the limited range of inter-rater reliability studied, the "high" level of inter-rater reliability did not provide more information than the "low" level. / All three designs were interactive, with significant two-way interactions in the information designs and a three-way interaction in the EM-cycles design. Within the experimental criteria of statistical significance and practical importance, it was demonstrated that the "high" levels of the experimental factors contributed to the few significant reductions in information and the number of EM-cycles that were detected. The direction of collapsing only had a significant effect in the EM-cycles design. / Because performance assessment batteries typically are composed of items which span the range of the item characteristics used as experimental factors in this study, it was concluded that the overall effects are more germane to practical applications than the few significant effects. Based on these results, practitioners who find it useful to collapse categories under the conditions considered here may do so without any expected adverse effects on maximum and total information. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-03, Section: A, page: 0541. / Director: Richard Tate. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.