This paper discusses the use of telephone surveys as a substitute for, or addition to, the use of door-to-door surveys in assessing adult literacy ability. Part 1 addresses issues of validity in adult literacy assessment, including the concepts of construct or inferential validity and action or use validity. Part 2 is a review of related research…

This report describes the methodology and initial results of an evaluation of the universal (school-wide) Positive Behavioral Intervention and Support (PBIS) initiative in Illinois, including (1) strategies for establishing research-based practices and data-based evaluation systems in implementation schools; (2) methodology and initial findings of…

This paper details the origins of the media comparison study methodology, its current use as an evaluation instrument in distance education, and recommendations for more stringent discrimination between research and evaluation in the field of distance learning. The following topics are discussed: (1) the history of research in instructional…

Evaluates a project in which two library liaisons assisted freshman English students in writing library research papers. The need to develop new bibliographic instruction programs in conjunction with teaching faculty is also discussed, noting that this revives the aggressive 19th-century scholar/librarian model. (27 references) (KRN)

Overcoming obstacles to teacher research about their own educational practices requires the formation of intellectual communities of teacher-researchers or networks of teachers. An analytic framework is presented for interpreting and evaluating the work of such groups according to how they use time, talk, construct texts, and interpret teaching…

Explains how careful planning can contribute to the success of controlled choice desegregation plans, using the approach developed in four Massachusetts communities. In this model, genuine collaborative planning involves every segment of the community. Surveys of parents, teachers, and principals provide necessary information for planning. (SLD)

Computerized simulation of physical phenomena is a growing area of high-performance computing, providing a new approach to scientific discovery and offering creative, efficient, and effective alternatives to laboratory experiments for teaching graduate and undergraduate science. The technique is a very important scientific and instructional tool.…

A computerized method is described whereby a mirror image pair of drawings, simultaneously drawn by the right and the left hands, can be compared. This BASIC computer program, which is available from the authors, has applications to a variety of psychological studies. (Author/JJK)

A technologically driven instructional assessment protocol, behavioral field systems evaluation, is explored relative to current application in movement education classrooms in a public school. The instrument, the Behavioral Evaluation Strategy and Taxonomy, was successfully applied to two elementary school teacher aggregates of six subjects each.…

In the U.S. Congress, attention to scientific fraud and misconduct has involved extensive use of oversight authority. Because scientists and universities have failed to respond promptly to calls for self-regulation, Congress has imposed formal regulations and favors increased scrutiny of research and a reassessment of university-government-science…

Professors John M. Barron and Michael E. Staten's article in Vol. 34, No. 3 of this journal, "Usage of Credit Cards Received through College Student-Marketing Programs," purports to "provide benchmark measures of college student credit card usage." Based on empirical analyses of proprietary industry data, they conclude that "There is no…

Organisational change in UK higher education has resulted in control of the student learning environment passing from specific disciplines such as psychology to central management teams and university-wide course frameworks. This poses the general question of how disciplines can exert influence upon broad pedagogic issues, when their control…

This paper reports on a comparison of two research approaches of the study of the reflective practice in two different modes of tele-guidance of the school practicum. The results of two studies were contrasted encouraging the dialogue between researchers coming from different research paradigms. Although the researchers in the two studies shared…

This What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) topic report addresses reading interventions for students in grades K-3, including core reading curricula, programs, or products to be used as supplements to other reading instruction, programs that focus on staff development, and literacy software. The WWC review on beginning reading focuses on programs…

In the fall of 1995 the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) held a conference to stimulate dialogue about future developments in the fields of education, statistical methodology, and technology and the implications of these developments for the nation's education statistics program. This paper summarizes and synthesizes the results of…