Classical Theory and Item-Response Theory – 3 to 5 Paragraphs

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Comparing Classical and Item-Response Theories

Item analysis is one of the most important elements of test construction. Statistical techniques can be used to carefully examine how a test item functions. This analysis can reveal how easy or difficult an item is and how well the item discriminates between test-takers. Item analysis can also reveal whether an item functions similarly when administered to different populations or when it is translated into another language. Classical test theory (CTT) and item-response theory (IRT) are the two commonly used methods of assessing test item characteristics.

Classical test theory focuses on an individual’s observed score of an entire instrument, not just individual items. It assumes that test scores have two major influences: consistency factors and inconsistency factors. In other words, there are characteristics of the test taker that are consistent and reflect the amount of whatever is being measured that is possessed by the individual. The inconsistency factors are those error factors from the individual or environment that have nothing to do with what is actually being measured. According to CTT then, a person’s observed score is the true score plus or minus error from these inconsistencies.

Item-response theory, on the other hand, is a set of models that establishes a person’s location on a latent variable using the observed data from a test item. This means that according to IRT, item responses on tests are explained by latent traits, or a trait that is presumed to exist in some quantity but cannot be directly assessed (e.g., intelligence or anxiety). Once you know where a person is on a latent variable scale (for instance, high anxiety or low anxiety), you can compare test takers to each other by seeing where each is on the continuum. According to IRT, each test item has an associated function, showing the probability that an individual with a certain quantity of the latent trait will pass the item.

When a new test is developed, test developers typically begin by creating more items than are needed. Item analysis techniques such as CTT and IRT are then used to “diagnose” items, and bad ones are discarded. IRT techniques can also be used to develop item banks. Items that function similarly can be used interchangeably, and computerized test administration can present a test tailored to the examinee’s ability level.

With these thoughts in mind:

Post by Day 4 an explanation of advantages and disadvantages of CTT and IRT. Describe two specific circumstances for which IRT might provide meaningful benefits if applied to the development or implementation of the test that you are proposing for your Final Project, and explain why. Finally, describe two specific circumstances for which CTT might provide meaningful benefits to your test, and explain why. Support your response using relevant literature.

Be sure to support your postings and responses with specific references in APA format!

Evaluation of a SIOP Lesson Plan. “What is a Dragonfly?”.

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Evaluation of a SIOP Lesson Plan

Details:

Find a lesson plan from “SIOP Lesson Plans and Activities.” What SEI strategies are incorporated in the lesson that you have chosen? What differentiation would be needed for pre-emergent or emergent (stages 1-3) level ELLs?

How does the lesson plan address the following:

1. Comprehensible input

2. ESL strategies

3. Ongoing, specific, and immediate feedback

4. Grouping structures and techniques

5. Building background and vocabulary development

6. Current materials in English Language Development (ELD) instruction (lesson and text modifications)

7. Student prior knowledge

8. Student engagement

Evaluate this lesson by creating a table that identifies how each of the SIOP components (1-8 above) is addressed. The explanation should be a 250-500 word essay.

APA style is not required, but solid academic writing is expected.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

The lesson plan that I choose was “What is a Dragonfly?”. Retrieved from: http://www.cal.org/siop/pdfs/lesson-plans/dragonfly-lesson-plan.pdf

Other resources: 

SIOP Lesson Plans and Activities

Use “SIOP Lesson Plans and Activities” page, located on the Center for Applied Linguistics website for examples of SIOP lesson plans and activities.

http://www.cal.org/siop/lesson-plans/index.html

Assignment_Outline.doc 

HSCO 500 Research Paper Outline

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RESEARCH PAPER – WORKING OUTLINE INSTRUCTIONS

Using current APA format, you will create a Working Outline as the next step towards your Final Research Paper. This outline will include a title page and references page(s), making any corrections from the Research Topic Paper and Annotated Bibliography Paper feedback.

You will outline your proposed Final Paper into various sections. You must include a brief summary (thesis statement) of the kind of content and scholarly sources you plan to include, giving a clear direction for your Final Research Paper.

You must cite ALL the sources from your Annotated Bibliography paper into the Working Outline (carefully review the provided Working Outline Example!). You can add or delete sources as you build your outline, however, ALL proposed sources (minimum of 10 books and journals) must be cited in the outline!

Sources must be referenced as appropriate, following current APA format, and you must include your references in an APA References page at the end of the Working Outline. Make sure to review the “Working Outline Example” and follow that format in your Working Outline paper that you upload for grading!

Please use APA formatting and in text cititation

Please No Plagiarism

Rough Draft detailed analysis of UPS CRM system benefits and challenges

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Topic: The benefits and challenges of CRM (Customer Relationship Management), highlighting customer loyalty programs

Company:UPS (United Parcel Service)

  • Your Role | Information Systems Consultant
  • Target | Company’s existing CRM system
  • Your Format | 3 page Research Paper Draft
  • Your Topic | Outline the strengths, weaknesses, and your recommendations to take the customer’s experience to the next level through better Information Systems (there is always room to take things to a higher level, even in well run organizations.
  • Directions:

  • Taking
    on the role of Information Systems Consultant, analyze a company’s existing CRM
    system from available public information. Try to touch on each of the
    topics covered throughout this course to help outline the strengths,
    weaknesses, and your recommendations to take the customer’s experience to the
    next level through better Information Systems (there is always room to take
    things to a higher level, even in well run organizations.)

    Assignment Tips:

    This
    assignment presents some challenges, in that you have limited information about
    the inner workings of their systems — do your best to piece together
    information from your experience with their service(s), their website, and
    articles written about their service(s). You can make simple, obvious
    assumptions about how things operate, but try to focus on the publicly
    available information as much as possible (and cite sources). Share
    your own tips and ideas for this project with your Group members using Group
    Announcements and Group Discussions.


    Real business where the
    leaders often only have time to focus on the summary analysis (your
    presentation) that you derive from your detailed analysis (your paper). Please
    remember to make presentations concise, clear, and engaging.


    Parameters:

    ·
    APA format -double-spaced, with
    references

Benchmark – Research Review

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As a counselor, you will be making decisions on how to select evidence-based treatments. In your essay, demonstrate the decision-making process that you will use to choose one evidence-based treatment over another. Write a 1,000-1,250-word reflection essay on how to effectively utilize research in order to guide decision-making processes in the counseling profession. Include the following in your essay:

  1. A discussion about how qualitative and quantitative research reports guide the decision-making process.
  2. A discussion about the key characteristics of effective writing and publication in counseling and psychological research. How do these characteristics guide the decision-making processes?
  3. Select a diagnosis and include an example of how research could assist in treatment.
  4. Include a minimum of three scholarly resources in addition to the course textbook.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to Turnitin. Refer to the directions in the Student Success Center.

HIM450 Selecting a Clinic Site

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Selecting a Clinic Site

By Day 1 of Week One, your instructor will assign each student an option, and this option will be used for at least one of the weekly assignments and the Final Project. Your healthcare organization has charged you as project manager for establishing a new clinic. Using real estate available in your area, identify three potential sites for your new assigned clinic. When deciding on a site to locate a clinic, four key considerations are: convenience, ease of access, connections to the community, and visibility. Using these factors and two additional factors of your choice, develop a model for selecting the ideal site for your clinic. Summarize why you selected the site. Include in your report a comparison of the three sites and include at a minimum:

  • Site location/address
  • URL for the site
  • Square footage of the site
  • Monthly rent
  • Cost per square foot
  • A minimum of six factors for selecting the site
  • Recommendation and rationale for site.

Second Part of the assignment

Sunnyvale Clinic Visit Forecast and Start-Up Costs

In this assignment, you need to prepare the following information:

    • Using the information for your assigned option, calculate the patient visits for the next three years and prepare a line chart (See embedded Final Project file). The line chart should include a chart title, the X and Y-axis title, and the projected patient visits forecasted.
    • Assuming the renovation cost is $100 per square foot, estimate the construction cost for the new clinic site [$100 times the square footage]. Assume the renovation will take three months and you need to prepare the budget for the renovation, including the three months of rent. What is the cost of the renovation and three months of rent? Show all work.
    • Using the Final Project Assumptions Template (available in the online classroom), estimate the start-up costs for the clinic. Start-up costs include the renovations, rent during renovation, and capital costs.

    International Financial Accounting IFRS vs US GAAP

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    Deliverable Length: 1,000–1,200 words with references

    International Accounting Standard 18 (IAS 18) provides the general standards for revenue recognition and measurement in the IFRS.

    • Provide 3 examples of the differences between the 2 sets of standards.

    Review the IAS 7 statement of cash flows, and complete the following:

    • Discuss the differences in classifications of cash flows between IFRS and U.S. GAAP.
    • What impacts will these have on U.S. companies?
    • Cover the differences with the classifications of contingent liabilities between U.S. GAAP and IFRS. Be sure to cover the topics of possible, probable, and bright-line tests.
    • When looking at cash and cash equivalents definitions between IFRS and U.S. GAAP, discuss the differences for the following:
      • Best estimates
      • Risks
      • Uncertainties

    Intro to Humanties

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    Over the course of the last 40 years, American education has changed.

    Whether we are discussing K-12 or high education, emphasis used to be placed upon:

    – ethics

    – critical thinking

    – literacy

    – being a good citizen and informed voter

    – understanding of American culture and world cultures

    – cultivating the complete person.

    This is no longer the case.

    In modern America, education is primarily designed to provide narrowly defined job training.

    Courses like Intro to the Humanities survive from the previous form of education in the modern system, and are clear outliers. This is why opinion is surprisingly – almost artificially – uniform in opposition to its existence.

    Teachers still attached to the notion of educating the complete person – not merely the future employee – see courses such as this as essential to maintaining a society of thinking people capable of self-awareness and empathy. They see the rise in cyberbullying, ideological radicalization, rage, fear, and chronic depression as symptomatic of a society that does not value the humanities – or even know what the humanities are.

    In a few years, this course may not exist.

    If this course goes, what is lost?

    What did you learn this term?

    Draw upon specific moments from the course (touching upon work we did throughout) to inform your answer.

    You may write using the pronoun “I” and offer subjective opinions that still cite specific cultural artifacts from the class, or you might discuss “students” broadly and leave yourself out of the equation if you are not comfortable using “I.”

    Write in 12-point, Times New Roman font, double-spaced, with 1 inch margins. Essays less than a page long will be considered too short to adequately answer this question. 3-4 pages seems in the right range.

    Please submit as a .doc, .docx, or PDF, but not in Pages or phone photos.

    Developmental Disorders

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    Developmental Disorders

    You have learned that the conceptualization of autism spectrum disorders as diagnoses has evolved, with the current DSM conceptualizing one neurological disorder with common characteristics, which are presented on a wide continuum, rather than separate disorders such as Asperger’s disorder or autistic disorder.

    Watch the video It’s a Different World. You may use the link provided or locate the video in the AUO library.

    • Describe the symptoms or characteristics of autism spectrum disorder you saw illustrated in the video that you learned about in your readings.
    • You have learned that autism is a spectrum disorder, with some children functioning at the lower end, requiring a lot of support, and others at the higher end, needing minimal support.

    Describe strengths and challenges that were noted for the children in the video?

    • Explain why it is important for a clinician to evaluate strengths and challenges in order to work with children, families, and educators.
    • Drawing on your readings, the video, and any other peer-reviewed sources you find relevant, explain whether research supports separate disorders (e.g., Asperger’s disorder, autistic disorder) or one disorder with a continuum of severity.

    Write a paper that is a minimum of 3 pages, not including a cover page and reference list. Format your paper using APA standards, to citation of sources, including in-text citations and full references. Use the following file naming convention: LastnameFirstInitial_M4_A2.doc.

    Persaud, R. (Director). (2008). It’s a different world. [Motion Picture]. United States: Filmmaker’s Library.

    By Wednesday, July 23, 2014, deliver your assignment to the M4: Assignment 2 Dropbox.

    Assignment 2 Grading Criteria

    Maximum Points

    Described symptoms or characteristics of ASD demonstrated in the video.

    20

    Described strengths and challenges of the children in the video.

    10

    Explained why it is important to evaluate strengths and challenges in order to work with children, parents, and educators

    10

    Explained whether research supports ASD as one disorder with a continuum of presentations or separate disorders.

    40

    Wrote in a clear, concise, and organized manner; demonstrated ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources; displayed accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

    20

    Total:

    100

    EEOC Discussion

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    There are various federal and state employment and labor laws protecting both employees and employers. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is the federal agency responsible for interpreting, investigating, and enforcing federal employment laws against workplace discrimination. In Week 2, you considered the legal components in a job description. In Week 4, you analyzed forms of discrimination when conducting a performance appraisal. For this discussion, you will look at protected classes identified by the EEOC. Protected classes are groups of people with common characteristics that are legally protected from employment discrimination.

    In your initial post,

    • Describe three protected classes and the laws that exist to protect them.
    • Explain how the EEOC investigates complaints of discrimination against a protected individual.
    • Discuss how employers can prevent and respond to allegations of employment discrimination.

    Your initial post should be a minimum of 300 words and cite at least one scholarly source to support your response.