In order to increase the quality and quantity of science instruction, elementary teachers must receive professional development in science learning processes. The current study was part of a larger randomized field study of teacher and student learning in science. In two districts in a southern state, researchers randomly assigned teacher…

Self-efficacy and mathematics anxiety have been identified as predictors of mathematics achievement. In the present study, secondary analyses on matrix summaries available from prior published studies were utilized to investigate the contribution that self-efficacy and mathematics anxiety made in mathematics performance. Commonality analyses were…

Collected Stanford Achievement Test, Eighth Edition scores for 560 elementary school students in a mid-southern urban school district, two-thirds of whom were black, and half of whom were magnet school participants. Findings show statistically significant differences for magnet/nonmagnet and black/white groups. Adjusted posttest scores of black…

Proposes and illustrates a new method by which "what if" analyses can be conducted using estimated true population effects. Use of these "what if" methods may prevent authors with large sample sizes from overinterpreting their small effects once they see that the small effects would no longer have been statistically significant with only a…

The controversy about the use or misuse of statistical significance testing has become the major methodological issue in educational research. This special issue contains three articles that explore the controversy, three commentaries on these articles, an overall response, and three rejoinders by the first three authors. They are: (1)…

Reviews null hypothesis statistical significance testing (NHST) in its historical context and concludes that workable alternatives to NHST are available. Among suggested alternatives, effect magnitude measures, replication techniques, and meta-analytic techniques are discussed. (SLD)

Comments on discussions of statistical significance testing in this special issue, placing the articles in the context of contemporary research literature. Empirical evidence is cited that suggests that the American Psychological Association's policy of encouraging effect size reporting has had no appreciable effect on the research literature.…

Attempts to clarify the positions of T. Nix and J. Barnette on statistical significance testing, advocates the routine use of effect size, and encourages reporting results in simple terms. (SLD)

Discusses commonalities in the papers of this special issue, addresses concerns about errors of omission expressed by T. Knapp, and provides some recommendations for the use of statistical significance testing with requirements for estimates of effect sizes. (SLD)

Considers reviews of L. Daniels's article on editorial policy regarding statistical significance testing and concludes that the controversy is not over, although the gradual movement toward requiring additional information in the reporting of statistical results is viewed as a positive trend. (SLD)