ABSTRACT Since 2003, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has compared each state's standard for proficient performance in reading and mathematics by placing the state standards onto the NAEP scale. The... more
ABSTRACT Since 2003, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has compared each state's standard for proficient performance in reading and mathematics by placing the state standards onto the NAEP scale. The procedure, "mapping," allows the level of achievement required for proficient performance in one state to be compared with the level of achievement required in another state. The mapping procedure offers an approximate way to assess the relative rigor of the states' standards for proficient performance. This report presents mapping results using the 2005 and 2007 NAEP assessments in mathematics and reading for grades 4 and 8. The analyses conducted for this study addresses the following questions: (1) How do states' 2007 standards for proficient performance compare with each other when mapped onto the NAEP scale? (2) How do the cut points on the NAEP scale that are equivalent to the scores required to meet a state's standard in 2007 compare to those estimated for 2005? and (3) Using the 2005 NAEP scale equivalent standards to define a state's proficient level of performance on NAEP, do NAEP and that state assessment agree on the changes in the proportion of students meeting that state's standard for proficiency from 2005 to 2007? The report divides into five sections. Following an introduction, Section 2 provides a description of the estimation methods used in the mapping and in the comparisons of results between 2005 and 2007. Section 3 presents the results of the analyses that examined the mapping results for 2007 in reading and mathematics at grades 4 and 8. Addressing the second question, Section 4 focuses on the comparison between the 2005 and 2007 mappings in reading and mathematics at grades 4 and 8. Addressing the third question, Section 5 discusses the NAEP and state assessment changes in achievement from 2005 to 2007, including possible explanations for discrepancies in the gains measured by the state tests and NAEP so that attention can be turned to identifying the sources of those discrepancies. Tables in appendix A show the sample sizes and percentages of the 2007 NAEP samples used in the analyses. Tables in appendix B summarize selected changes in states' assessments between the two NAEP administrations of 2005 and 2007 that could affect the interpretation of the mapping results. Appendix C includes tables with results complementing those discussed in the body of the report. (Contains 40 tables, 4 figures, and 28 footnotes.)
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Since the appearance of A Nation at Risk (U.S. Department of Education, 1983), policymakers , practitioners and parents have all agreed on the need to improve American elementary and secondary education. Data from most international... more
Since the appearance of A Nation at Risk (U.S. Department of Education, 1983), policymakers , practitioners and parents have all agreed on the need to improve American elementary and secondary education. Data from most international studies show our nation 's children performing poorly on tests of academic achievement compared with students of the same age in some other nations. Yet, as the editors of this special feature section point out, data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) suggest that U.S. students are performing better than they did at the time when A Nation at Risk was written (U.S. Department of Education, 1997). Is the re a paradox? Before answering this question , it is instructive to ask what conditions must be met for one to draw firm conclusions about the validity of trends in academic achievement. Common content frameworks across nations and across time . If one is to be able to make valid comparisons either across nations or over time within the same nation, it is necessary to compare "apples with apples" and "oranges with oranges ." If one is assessing mathematics and the framework for one assessment calls for measuring the full range of mathematical curricular topics based on the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) standards and another focuses only on numbers and operations, any comparison of results from two assessments based on the two frameworks will necessarily b e flawed. Items that validly measure the various subareas and themes contained in the frameworks. Valid comparisons depend not only on common conte nt frameworks across nations and across time, but on items that measure the various subareas and themes captured by the frameworks. If the items in one assessment are balanced so as to m easure all the various themes and
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Some researchers have questioned whether there is a causal connection between Advanced Placement (AP) STEM coursetaking and the choice of a STEM college major and a STEM occupation. Their research findings strongly suggest that if prior... more
Some researchers have questioned whether there is a causal connection between Advanced Placement (AP) STEM coursetaking and the choice of a STEM college major and a STEM occupation. Their research findings strongly suggest that if prior interest in STEM as well as other possible confounders are taken into account, the relationships of taking AP mathematics to expecting to be in a STEM major and/or a STEM occupation are small to nonexistent. Results from the current study, which uses data from a national longitudinal sample—actual measures of who majors in STEM—and prior interest in STEM along with other possible confounders, indicate that taking AP mathematics and AP science courses is significantly related to majoring in STEM and/or expecting to be in a STEM occupation at age 30—the sole exception being the taking of AP statistics.
Research Interests: Stem Cell and confounding
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... New York: Hafner Press. Glass, Gene V., Victor L. Willson and John M. Gottman 1975 Design and Analysis of Time-Series Exper-iments. ... As usual, the author takes sole responsibility for any errors. Special thanks to Debbie Adams for... more
... New York: Hafner Press. Glass, Gene V., Victor L. Willson and John M. Gottman 1975 Design and Analysis of Time-Series Exper-iments. ... As usual, the author takes sole responsibility for any errors. Special thanks to Debbie Adams for typing the manuscript. Page 2. COMMENTS ...
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Research Interests: Psychology and Class Size
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THE QUICK WORD TEST (QWT) was originally developed as an efficient instrument for assessment of verbal ability in the general and high school pop ulations (Level I) and in the college and profession al populations (Level II). Extensive... more
THE QUICK WORD TEST (QWT) was originally developed as an efficient instrument for assessment of verbal ability in the general and high school pop ulations (Level I) and in the college and profession al populations (Level II). Extensive data have been published on the reliability and on the content and pre dictive validity of this test (1). In using the QWT as a standard reference point in studies of vocational high school students, it was found that assuming the performance level of the students to be from one to three years retarded (based on other tests), the QWT was operating efficiently at levels equivalent to those of the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades (2). Persistent requests for a form that would go even below this level led to the development of the E le rn entary Forms as described below. One of the difficulties associated with using the QWT, Level I, with students below the seventh grade is that they have too low a success rate unless they are very good students, anda morale factor could arise in the use of the test. In addition, the QWT is a power test, and verbal ability tends to be negative ly correlated to the amount of time required for completion of the test. Thus, while the QWT may be completed in about eight or ten minutes by a high proportion of high school students, sixth graders take much longer, pondering on the items, and the test becomes anything but "quick". As a first approximation to the development of an Elementary Form, two forms were constructed from items selected tobe the "easiest" among those in the four alternate forms of the Level I QW T ' s . The initial selection was based on the original diffi culties of the items, on which basis the tests were first constructed in 19560 The difficulties were then checked against experience with tenth graders in the samples used for the norming of the QWT. Further, item-to-total correlations in the latter were checked and used as a basis for additional screening of items to increase efficiency of the test, since the length projected would be 50 items instead of 100. At this point it became evident that an insufficient number of items of the desired efficiency and difficulty existed in order to prepare forms having the ideal character istics specified in advance. Our rough extrapola tions indicated that we might not have a sufficient number of items that fourth graderswould be an swering correctly. Thus additional items were in troduced that had been utilized in our original devel opment of the QWT and had previously been dis carded as "too easy". Only limited information about these items was available. Since our intention was to develop two forms, and less than 100 items were available on which we had confirmed informa tion on difficulty of the item and item-to-total corre lations, it was decided that in our first use of the forms 60 items would be utilized with the objective of reduction of the items to the 50 "best" items. The preliminary forms were constructed by roughly balancing the difficulties of 12 blocks of five items each. The first ten blocks were constructed to represent the final 50 item test as projected, and the additional two blocks were to serve as sources of substitute items.
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Sociologists almost always rely on fallible measuring instruments in attempting to estimate parameters. Recent work by Heise (1969) has shown how parametric estimates can be made with fallible data when one has three waves of panel data.... more
Sociologists almost always rely on fallible measuring instruments in attempting to estimate parameters. Recent work by Heise (1969) has shown how parametric estimates can be made with fallible data when one has three waves of panel data. However, when one has only crosssectional data, he must obtain multiple measurements on the same underlying "true" variable and use the correlations among the fallible measurements to make estimates of the parameters. Two different approaches
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... The calculation of these item-to-total correlations is usually termed item analysis. Again, the procedure devel-oped below can be used to do an item analysis. ... Item-to-Total Correlations Initem analysis, one is interested in how... more
... The calculation of these item-to-total correlations is usually termed item analysis. Again, the procedure devel-oped below can be used to do an item analysis. ... Item-to-Total Correlations Initem analysis, one is interested in how well each item correlates with the total score. ...
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While substantial research has shown the relationship between earlier mathematics coursetaking and later mathematics achievement, recent research suggests that mathematics motivation is an important predictor of grade 12 mathematics... more
While substantial research has shown the relationship between earlier mathematics coursetaking and later mathematics achievement, recent research suggests that mathematics motivation is an important predictor of grade 12 mathematics achievement as well. The current study extends this research by examining the role of mathematics identity at grade 11 for grade 12 mathematics achievement, and whether differences in self- versus other- appraisals of whether a student is “a mathematics person” are related to mathematics achievement after taking mathematics motivation into account. We use a unique dataset from a sample of U.S. students who participated in both the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 and grade 12 National Assessment of Educational Progress mathematics assessment. The analyses reveal that the stronger the students’ mathematics identity the better their grade 12 mathematics achievement even after accounting for students’ mathematics and science course-taking patterns, their STEM grade point average (STEM GPA), prior mathematics achievement (measured at grade 9) and background characteristics. While initial analyses suggested that higher mathematics achievement is also associated with perceived appraisals by others being more positive than self-appraisals with respect to being “a math person,” that relationship was found to be non-significant when other variables in the model are included. The theoretical implications of the study’s findings are discussed.
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Research Interests: Psychology and Education
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Using the overlap sample of about 3500 students who participated in both the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 and the 2013 grade 12 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics assessment, this study investigates... more
Using the overlap sample of about 3500 students who participated in both the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 and the 2013 grade 12 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics assessment, this study investigates the relationships of mathematics identity, efficacy and interest to mathematics achievement in high school. Role identities, such as having a mathematics identity, as well as mathematics efficacy and interest are hypothesized to be important motivators of role-related behavior. Using a structural equation modeling approach, measures of these constructs at grades 9 and 11 are related to grade 12 NAEP mathematics achievement, simultaneously taking into account grade 9 mathematics achievement, high school mathematics coursetaking, educational expectations at grades 9 and 11 and student and school background factors. The results indicate that a mathematics identity and educational expectations at grade 11 are statistically and substantively significant predictors of grade 12 mathematics achievement in the presence of these other factors, whereas neither of the other two motivation factors—grade 11 mathematics self-efficacy and mathematics interest—were shown to have direct effects on grade 12 mathematics achievement. However, mathematics self-efficacy at grade 9 was shown to have an indirect effect on grade 12 mathematics achievement through grade 11 mathematics identity. The implications of these findings for identity theory are discussed.
We show that self-ratings by 141 undergraduates on 17 items form a circumplex that closely agrees with Conte and Plutchik's (1981) circumplex of personality traits. The order of items on a circumplex, generated by self-ratings... more
We show that self-ratings by 141 undergraduates on 17 items form a circumplex that closely agrees with Conte and Plutchik's (1981) circumplex of personality traits. The order of items on a circumplex, generated by self-ratings following a here-and-now instruction set, scarcely differs from that of a circumplex representing the same ratings averaged over a 2-week period. The configuration becomes more elliptical as one moves from the state-like measures (here-and-now ratings) to pure trait measures (averages), but measurement bias is shown to be the most probable cause of the distortion. Allowing for the limitations of small samples of items and raters, the findings show that the circumplex model represents a valid theoretical construct and does not arise from measurement error or from an illusory implicit personality theory.
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We use data on 23 populations, a linear regression model, and measures derived from aggregate-level theories to analyze 1950 to 1970 changes in age-specific illegitimacy rates. Illegitimacy rates in 1950 have strong net effects on 1970... more
We use data on 23 populations, a linear regression model, and measures derived from aggregate-level theories to analyze 1950 to 1970 changes in age-specific illegitimacy rates. Illegitimacy rates in 1950 have strong net effects on 1970 levels in most age groups, but a population’s 1950 age at marriage, economic growth rate, and change in the status of women have large and significant net effects on all 23 populations and on change in early 1950 marriage age nations as well. In the 1950 late age at marriage stratum measures with an effect on 19501970 change were economic growth rates and two measures of marital fertility change.
Research Interests: Sociology and Demography
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Reviews: Campbell, James S., Campbell, Ernest Q., Hobson, Carol J., McPartland, James, Mood, Alexander M., Weinfeld, Frederick D., & York, Robert L. Equality of Educational Opportunity. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1966. 733 + v pp. $4.25. Supplemental Appendix. 548 + vii pp...more