sorry for late reply ranking is the LEAST useful thing you can do ... so, i would never START with simple ranks any sort of an absolute kind of scale ... imperfect as it is ... would generally be better ...
one can always convert more detailed scale values INTO ranks at the end if necessary BUT, you cannot go the reverse route say we have 10 people measured on variable X ... and we end up with no ties ... so, we get ranks of 1 to 10 ... but, these value give on NO idea whatsoever as to the differences amongst the 10 if i had a 3 person senior high school class with cumulative gpas of 4.00, 3.97, and 2.38 ... the ranks would be 1, 2, and 3 ... but clearly, there is a huge difference between either of the top 2 and the bottom ... but, ranks give no clue to this at all so, my message is ... DON'T START WITH RANKS At 02:11 AM 12/19/01 +0000, Doug Federman wrote: >I have a dilemma which I haven't found a good solution for. I work with >students who rotate with different preceptors on a monthly basis. A >student will have at least 12 evaluations over a year's time. A >preceptor usually will evaluate several students over the same year. >Unfortunately, the preceptors rarely agree on the grades. One preceptor >is biased towards the middle of the 1-9 likert scale and another may be >biased towards the upper end. Rarely, does a given preceptor use the 1-9 >range completely. I suspect that a 6 from an "easy" grader is equivalent >to a 3 from a "tough" grader. > >I have considered using ranks to give a better evaluation for a given >student, but I have a serious constraint. At the end of each year, I >must submit to another body their evaluation on the original 1-9 scale, >which is lost when using ranks. > >Any suggestions? > >-- >"It has often been remarked that an educated man has probably forgotten >most of the facts he acquired in school and university. Education is what >survives when what has been learned has been forgotten." >- B.F. Skinner New Scientist, 31 May 1964, p. 484 > > > > >================================================================= >Instructions for joining and leaving this list and remarks about >the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES are available at > http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ >================================================================= _________________________________________________________ dennis roberts, educational psychology, penn state university 208 cedar, AC 8148632401, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://roberts.ed.psu.edu/users/droberts/drober~1.htm ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ =================================================================
