Data collection and analysis are frequently neglected by school leaders over the course of the decision-making process. All schools gather large amounts of information about students and teachers, but most data are used to satisfy administrative requirements rather than evaluate school improvement in a systematic fashion. Apprehension regarding…

Examines the discussion surrounding the establishment of a reliable transfer rate measure by outlining the major arguments advanced by scholars and researchers in the field. Discusses traditional models of calculating transfer rates, their strengths and weaknesses, and introduces nontraditional transfer rate models. (24 citations) (AJL)

Discusses the difficulty in obtaining transfer rates due to the disagreement over definitions of "transfer." Compares different options to show how manipulating the pool of eligible transfer students influences transfer rates. Describes transfer-ready models for calculating transfer eligibility rate, as well as the Student Right-to-Know formula.…

This paper begins with "insider" voices from disciplines that students in a writing program rarely encounter. As background, the paper muses on the theoretical and pedagogical potential of studying and understanding the rhetoric of inquiry in other disciplines as a way of arriving at a social constructionist view of knowledge. The paper…

Traditional elementary statistics instruction for non-majors has focused on computation. Rarely have students had an opportunity to interact with real data sets or to use questioning to drive data analysis, common activities among professional statisticians. Inclusion of data gathering and analysis into whole class and small group activities…

Papers on local area networks (LANs), modelling techniques, software improvement, capacity planning, software engineering, microcomputers and end user computing, cost accounting and chargeback, configuration and performance management, and benchmarking presented at this conference include: (1) "Theoretical Performance Analysis of Virtual…

An aim of many students of human development is to penetrate behavioral variability in such a way as to reveal stable phenomena. This broad aim is challenged on numerous fronts when researchers study infant behavior, for students of infants are everywhere confronted with variability. But, in the context of research, variability of subjects'…

This series of 10 essays, written at various times since the mid-1960s, explores the U.S. economy's proneness to both high inflation and high unemployment during this period. The essays present ideas that the author believes could have reined in price increases in the early stages, and that presently could speed the reduction of inflation and…

A decision support application based on the Markov analytic model is described, and its use in the formation of policy concerning reduction in force and work force distribution is illustrated through the comparative modeling of two personnel management policies. (MSE)

Differences in the corrected state rankings on Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores are explained by the percentage of students taking the test and by student composition by sex, race, and average family income. Higher state per capita educational expenditures are significantly related to higher average SAT scores. Policy implications are…

This comment is a response to a paper on noncompletion rates in United Kingdom universities (Johnes and Taylor 1989). The causal inferences are ill founded because they are based on data aggregated to university level. Individual-level data are essential, and data on other levels may also be necessary. (Author/MLW)

Reexamines M. Elizabeth Tidball's claim that women who graduate from women's colleges accomplish more than other, similar women who graduate from coeducational colleges. The authors believe Tidball's work is insensitive to class issues and argue that her approach does not control for other factors that might covary with whether the college is…

The future of program evaluation is bright if evaluators do not ignore their roots in quantitative research. The current interest in qualitative approaches and the call for a "fourth generation" in evaluation should not override training in quantitative research. Qualitative research should complement, rather than replace, traditional…

Notes only a small number of widely-circulated studies are central to the idea that teachers should specifically teach phonemic awareness skills to young children. Shows that they selectively and misleadingly cite other studies out of context to support their argument and that their statistical procedures do not support their propositions. Offers…

The planning and management of educational systems has been examined widely in the last decades despite the lack of a standard research method and a unified underlying theory. Research based on quantitative analysis yields data that may be processed using the graphic capabilities of computers. The combination of numerical data and computer…