This article illustrates five different methods for estimating Angoff cut scores using item response theory (IRT) models. These include maximum likelihood (ML), expected a priori (EAP), modal a priori (MAP), and weighted maximum likelihood (WML) estimators, as well as the most commonly used approach based on translating ratings through the test characteristic curve (i.e., the IRT true‐score (TS) estimator). The five methods are compared using a simulation study and a real data example. Results indicated that the application of different methods can sometimes lead to different estimated cut scores, and that there can be some key differences in impact data when using the IRT TS estimator compared to other methods. It is suggested that one should carefully think about their choice of methods to estimate ability and cut scores because different methods have distinct features and properties. An important consideration in the application of Bayesian methods relates to the choice of the prior and the potential bias that priors may introduce into estimates. 相似文献
Previous studies have identified the features of preschool programs that correlate with positive outcomes for low-income children, but the impact of economic integration has not been studied. This study compares the receptive language growth of two groups of children from low-income families. One group of children (N = 35) attended economically integrated preschools and the other (N = 50) attended preschools for low-income families. Language scores of the two groups were not significantly different when they entered the programs in the fall, but the children in integrated programs scored significantly higher than the other group in the spring. This effect was not significant for children who spoke a language other than English at home. The impact of program type was most evident for children from low-income families who spoke only English at home. When these children were integrated into economically mixed programs their spring scores (adjusted for fall scores) were not significantly different from those of English-speaking peers from more affluent families in the same programs. It is suggested that the language skills of these more advantaged peers may have had a positive impact on the language learning environment in the economically integrated preschools. Implications for school readiness initiatives and further study are discussed. 相似文献
Purpose: The aim of this paper is to comparatively assess the most suitable channels for dissemination of agricultural innovations along the entire information value chain.
Design/Methodology/Approach: We calculated information scores to measure channel preference from a randomly selected sample of farmers: 285 in Tamale, Ghana and 300 in Kakamega, Kenya. Using t-tests we compared the information score differences of different channels between farmers who adopted Integrated Soil Fertility Management and those who did not.
Findings: The highest information scores were observed for radio along the entire value chain for both locations. However, farmers in Tamale prefered interpersonal channels for processing information. Radio and farmer field days had the highest rankings for production information at both locations. Radio, workshops and interpersonal channels (traders and neighbours/friends/relatives) were best-bet channels for marketing and procesing information.
Practical implication: Extension agents should place more emphasis on channels such as radio, farmer field days, and workshops as they may offer more efficient delivery of information packages at all levels, whilst recognizing the central role of interpersonal channels.
Theoretical implication: The nexus between the uses and gratification, adoption, diffusion of innovations theories and the collaborative communication theory on one hand, and the agricultural product value chain framework on the other, is highlighted. Farmers’ preference for information channels is not predicated on the stage of the value chain.
Originality/Value: In the current context of weak agricultural knowledge and innovation systems in African agriculture, agricultural producers are poorly informed about the current innovations. This study furnishes empirical evidence on the best-bet information channels to be used by extension workers and change agents to disseminate and communicate system innovations. 相似文献
Educators and policy makers in many countries have been expressing concern about how to improve students’ achievement in reading
and math. This article explores and proposes a solution: introduce or increase foreign language study in the elementary schools.
Research has shown that foreign language study in the early elementary years improves cognitive abilities, positively influences
achievement in other disciplines, and results in higher achievement test scores in reading and math. Successful foreign language
programs for elementary schools include immersion, FLES, and FLEX programs. 相似文献
This observational study examined the strategies that music students used to locate scores and media items in an academic library's online public access catalog (OPAC). During a usability test, investigators tracked students' search strategies and behaviors, and measured their success in identifying appropriate items. Students experienced briefer, less complicated, and more successful queries for media items than for music scores (the latter of which they struggled to find and properly identify). Class standing, library catalog experience, and prior library instruction had no significant effect on positive outcomes. Searches for music scores were highly sensitive to variations in query wording, and students frequently struggled to revise their searches. 相似文献
The effects of computer and paper test media on EFL test-takers with different computer familiarity in writing scores and in the cognitive writing process have been comprehensively explored from the learners’ aspect as well as on the basis of related theories and practice. The results indicate significant differences in test scores among the test-takers who are less familiar with computers, showing that the computer test medium has greatly impacted this group of test-takers’ writing scores. From the perspective of the cognitive process, they are not significantly different in such stages as ‘goal-setting’, ‘generating ideas’ and ‘reviewing’, while their ‘organising ideas’ and ‘translating’ stages were greatly different, owing mainly to the nature of the test medium itself. 相似文献
