A representative sample of studies drawn from the published program evaluation literature is examined. It is concluded that weak designs, low statistical power, ad hoc measurement, and neglect of treatment implementation and program theory characterize the state of the art in program evaluation. (Author/BS)

Reasons for the lack of research in occupational therapy include small numbers of doctoral level occupational therapists, the psychobehavioral/biochemical dichotomy, the lack of a theoretical framework, the level of research instruction, the impact of a predominantly female profession, and the attitudes of institutions. (SK)

Suggests decision making techniques that can be used to estimate the consequences of choosing alternative courses of action, to select an optimum strategy, or to determine how sensitive predicted outcomes are to particular assumptions. Microcomputer use, quantitative techniques, and examples involving item reordering and adoption of word…

A recent article by William R. Dunlap on admissions criteria is presented to illustrate applied statistical misuse. It is the basis for discussion of severe methodological problems including range truncation, dummy coding, identifying race and sex bias, measuring professional potential, and generalization of findings. The author's response is…

Points out that 108 studies in the first 25 volumes of AV Communication Review used univariate analysis of variance to test experimental hypotheses, and suggests that researchers include omega-squared values in their reports to permit estimation of the relationship between x and y variables, and correlation data for comparing studies. (MER)

Presents an analysis of 1977 HEGIS data which shows that a majority of 2-year college libraries do not meet 1979 ACRL standards--presently more stringent than those used in the HEGIS study--and advocates increased financial support to improve the quality of these libraries. Included are five references. (RAA)

This series of articles examines the use of research in vocational agriculture, including interpretation of findings, research needs and problems for the 1980s, using research in inservice education, and the role of supervisors in research. (SK)

Likely enrollment trends in the near future may forecast difficulties for institutions, and for current and prospective faculty, but students will seldom, if ever, have it so good on campus. Institutions will be primed to serve student needs better than ever before. (MSE)

Examines the statistical methods used and those that should be used to detect cheating on standardized tests and enumerates the legal rights that might be violated by use of inadequate methods. Outlines a model of self-policing that would avoid the disadvantages that flow from resorting to judicial solutions. (Author/IRT)

There are many areas within sport studies that require using mathematical analyses, which would foster a fuller understanding of the structure and strategy of sport and the development of quantitatively viable theories of motor development. (CJ)

Contrary to Anderson (EJ 187 936), his rule for equation identification is a necessary but not sufficient condition; furthermore, the choice of two-stage or ordinary least squares depends on results and not on methodological properties of estimators. Modification of Anderson's rule and a means for choosing between estimates is offered. (Author/CP)

This critique points out problems in the methodology used by Robinson and Bell in their analysis of societal differences between the United States and England and makes suggestions about future investigations. (EB)

This paper argues that statistical inference practices in both educational and psychological research should be directed away from traditional significance tests in favor of Bayesian inferential methods. Regular use of exploratory data analytic methods is recommended in conjunction with computer intensive resampling methods. Approaches to…

Focuses on Elman's (1990) statistical analyses of the hidden unit activation patterns in his simple recurrent network on sentence prediction, first to highlight the feasibility of such analyses and then to show how connectionist explanations contribute to the development of effective explanatory theories. Argues for the evolutionary nature of…

This paper argues that judgment-based assessment of data from multiply replicated single-subject or small-N studies should replace normative-based (p=less than 0.05) assessment of large-N research in the clinical sciences, and asserts that inferential statistics should be abandoned as a method of evaluating clinical research data. (Author/JDD)