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To address a persistent crime problem in a large, high crime apartment complex occupied by Latino and Vietnamese immigrants in Garden Grove, California, the local police department opened a storefront office. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact this community policing effort had on the residents of the complex in terms of reducing fear of crime and improving attitudes towards the police. A questionnaire was administered to the residents before opening the storefront office and at the conclusion of the project. Despite group differences, the results revealed that the intervention had a positive impact on both groups. Overall, Latinos reported less fear of crime after the intervention and improved perception of the police. The Vietnamese reported more fear of crime than Latinos (pre and post) but less fear of crime after the intervention. However, their attitudes towards the police, which were very positive on the pretest, did not improve on the post‐test.

In the context of competing theoretical economic–econometric models and corresponding estimators, we demonstrate a semiparametric combining estimator that, under quadratic loss, has superior risk performance. The method eliminates the need for pretesting to decide between members of the relevant family of econometric models and demonstrates, under quadratic loss, the nonoptimality of the conventional pretest estimator. First-order asymptotic properties of the combined estimator are demonstrated. A sampling study is used to illustrate finite sample performance over a range of econometric model sampling designs that includes performance relative to a Hausman-type model selection pretest estimator. An important empirical problem from the causal effects literature is analyzed to indicate the applicability and econometric implications of the methodology. This combining estimation and inference framework can be extended to a range of models and corresponding estimators. The combining estimator is novel in that it provides directly minimum quadratic loss solutions.

The main purpose of this study is to contribute to the literature concerned with improving the effectiveness of corporate social responsibility (CSR) advertising by considering how such ads are pre-tested.

Two similar video ads were produced: one using an informative appeal and the other using an emotional appeal. The latter appeal is more widely used by practitioners. Each ad was designed to promote the CSR credentials of the same (fictitious) company. A web-based experiment (n = 244) was used to test both using two types of measure: first attitude towards the company (such as its image) and second the feelings evoked by the ad.

As predicted from theory, the ads promoted similar evaluations of the company but the evaluations measured by evoked feelings differed significantly. The information-based ad evoked more positive emotions, less negative emotions and more positive attitudes toward the ad. If the ads had been pretested using only measures of evoked feelings, the more emotive treatment would have been rejected.

The study shows why CSR ads should be pretested and why such tests should include multiple measures. It also illustrates how informative CSR video ads can be better received but how both informative and emotional appeals can be used when communicating a company's CSR.

There is little research relevant to the pretesting of ads designed to communicate a company's CSR. Signaling theory can help explain why comparable (CSR) video ads can be evaluated as similar in their effect on company related evaluations.

The purpose of this study is to create a course in a learning management system (LMS), Canvas, for online Ed.D. students and determine if the course can improve scores measuring metaliteracy concepts from pretest to posttest. The course assessed knowledge of metaliteracy goals and objectives instead of using the ACRL Framework. This paper reports on the creation of the course, results of the pretest-posttest, a mapping of metaliteracy goals and objectives with the ACRL Framework and recommendations for including metacognitive practices in library instruction.

The researcher used a quantitative, quasi-experimental, exploratory design and developed a metaliteracy course in the Canvas LMS using a pretest-posttest design, creating video tutorials as the treatment for each module (five total) using Adobe Spark.

According to a t-test run in SPSS, there was a significant difference between the metaliteracy pretest and metaliteracy posttest. Using metaliteracy goals and objectives as a method for assessing information literacy knowledge can be useful. Using the ACRL Framework along with metaliteracy goals and objectives can be effective for presenting and assessing information literacy knowledge and skills.

One limitation of this study was the use of one population of online Ed.D. students at one institution. One implication of this study is the need for metaliteracy goals and objectives to be used in connection with the ACRL Framework.

This research adds to the limited knowledge of how metaliteracy goals and objectives can be used to assess information literacy and other literacies using a pretest-posttest format in an online format.

Financial literacy is lacking across all age groups, but less than one-third of young adults have even basic financial knowledge. Research has demonstrated that online learning is effective. As such, online learning strategies may be a useful tool for improving the financial literacy of high school students. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

This study uses student-level (N=3,061) and school-level data (n=100) to examine the effectiveness of Soar to Savings, an online learning module that teaches key personal finance and economics concepts.

The findings show large, positive, and statistically significant gains in learning from pretest to posttest for the student-level and school-level samples.

The results provide evidence that Soar to Savings is an effective tool for increasing financial knowledge.

This paper presents an experimental study that examined the effects of cross‐cultural instruction on the interpersonal job skills of students in secondary vocational programs. The findings indicated that students receiving the cross‐cultural instruction had significantly higher generalizable interpersonal relations skills achievement than students not receiving the instruction. It was recommended that cross‐cultural instruction be integrated into vocational and industrial training curriculum, including instructor training. Trainers should assist trainees in associating cultural awareness to their personal and professional success. A model is offered as a guide for developing generalizable interpersonal skills training materials for a diverse workplace. The model defines culture broadly, including gender and age. Examination of cultures within which the trainees are most familiar may assist in the understanding of more diverse differences between ethnic groups.

Leadership training has led to a large amount of research due to the belief that such training can lead to (or more precisely cause) positive changes in followers’ behavior and work performance. This chapter describes some of the conditions necessary for research to show a causal relationship between leadership training and outcomes. It then describes different research designs, employed in leadership training research, and considers the types of problems that can affect inferences about causality. The chapter focuses on the role of randomization of leaders (e.g., into training vs. non-training conditions) as a key methodological procedure and alludes to problems of achieving this in field settings.

Regression analyses of compensatory educational programs have been criticized on the grounds that the pupils were not randomly selected. Specifically, it has been argued that a spurious deleterious effect of the treatment will be observed when the selection procedure systematically puts lower-ability students into the treatment group and higher-ability students into the control group.

We evaluate this argument via a simple test score model: pretest score and posttest score are fallible measures of underlying true ability and the true treatment effect is zero. Posttest is regressed on pretest and a treatment dummy. The spurious effect arises when selection of subjects for treatment is explicit on the basis of true ability, but not when it is explicit on the basis of pretest score.

This study was intended to determine the effects of self-instructional training on algebra problem solving performance of students with learning disabilities, students for whom English is a second language and students who were at risk of failing algebra. Four high school algebra classes consisting of 74 students, of whom 17 were classified as having learning disabilities, 37 had English as a second language, and 20 were considered at-risk for math failure, were assigned randomly to either a self-instructional training condition or a traditional instructional condition. All students were administered pretests, immediate posttests, and delayed posttests of algebra problem solving, pre and post strategy usage questionnaires, and attitude measures. After training, results indicated that both groups’ performance increased from pretest to immediate posttest and pretest to delayed posttest, but no statistical difference was found between groups. The self-instruction group significantly outperformed the traditional instruction group on independent strategy use. Significant correlations were obtained between strategy usage and immediate and delayed posttest scores, indicating that students who successfully learned the strategy had better performance on the math problem solving tests. No significant differences were found across groups in attitude change. Future research issues are discussed with respect to strategy instruction for at risk learners.