At a Large University, a Group of Education Specialists Tested

question 34

Essay

At a large university, a group of education specialists tested the effectiveness of a new academic improvement course. Students seeking help at the university counseling center because of academic difficulties were asked to participate in this 4-week program. Only students who were judged to be deficient in reading comprehension and other study-related skills were chosen for the program. Students who sought help at the counseling center for emotional difficulties were included in the study as a comparison group. They received the usual treatment offered at the counseling center. A group of 30 students completed the academic-improvement program at the counseling center. Average test grades from the students' courses for the two groups were compared before (midterm exams) and after (final exams) the program. Analyses revealed that a statistically significant majority of the students were doing better in school after completing the academic-improvement program than before.
-What major threats to internal validity are controlled by this research design?

Formulate and test hypotheses in the context of regression analysis.

Recognize the implications of violating regression assumptions like independence of errors.

Calculate critical values for statistical tests and interpret the significance.

Identify the range of values for the Durbin-Watson statistic and their implications.

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Definitions:

External Files

Refer to files that are created, stored, and accessed outside of the executable program's memory space, often used for data storage, configuration, or logging.

Internal Name

A name used within a program's code to identify a variable, function, or other element, not visible to the end user.

Filename

The designated name for a file in a file system, used to uniquely identify it among other files.

Characters

Basic symbols or letters that represent text in computing and programming, used to form strings and manage text data.