Help, need feedback

Posted by Debra Caywood-Rukas on Jan 30, 2007; 12:20am
URL: http://spssx-discussion.165.s1.nabble.com/Help-need-feedback-tp1073543.html

I am a doctoral student trying to pull together my diss topic and how to analyze my data.  It's been a few years since my Stats courses and would like input.

I my looking to see if 2 different sets of reading assessment (IV's)  administered in Kindergarten and 1st grade (categorical) are predictive of scores received on tests given in 3rd ( categorical) and 4th grade (continuous: percentiles, but can convert to categorical), DV's . Can I keep continuous or must I convert to categorical?

My data are longitudinal and consists of 153 students who took the 1st grade assessments as well as the 3rd and 4th grade tests and a subset of that group are  64 students who took the Kindergarten and 1st grade assessment as well as the 3rd and 4th grade tests.

I am thinking that I need to analyze the data using Multiple Regression multivariate analysis. Including examining if there are any interaction effects between the 2 IV's.  Am I on the right track?  Any suggestions?

Please give me your thoughts.

Thanks,
Debra Caywood-Rukas, M.Ed., Ed. S, NCSP
Educational-School Psychologist