Ground-based astronomy sky surveys are massive, decades-long investments in scientific data collection. Stakeholders expect these datasets to retain scientific value well beyond the lifetime of the sky survey. However, the necessary investments in knowledge infrastructures for managing sky survey data are not yet in place to ensure the long-term…

Purpose/Objective: Under the reauthorized Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states and districts retain greater discretion over the measures included in school quality report cards. Moreover, ESSA now requires states to expand their measurement efforts to address factors like school climate. This shift toward more comprehensive measures of school…

Forty years ago, the National Center for Education Statistics initiated the national longitudinal studies program in response to congressional concern for policy-relevant information on school-to-work transitions. This program has grown substantially, and not unexpectedly, questions have arisen about its usefulness and present operation. This…

For more than a decade, hundreds of thousands of India's young adults have volunteered to collect data for an annual household education related survey. The survey is called the Annual Status of Education Report or ASER, for short. The ASER survey is a unique methodology of citizen-led assessments. The purpose of this article is to describe and…

Compared data collected through paper survey forms to data collected with handheld computer-based forms in a field study of alcohol purchase attempts at 47 community festivals. Agreement between the two methods was greater than 95%. Findings show handheld computers to be a feasible alternative to paper forms for field data collection. (SLD)

This paper examines the benefits of merging sociological methods by concentrating on the contribution of field observation prior to the designing of a survey study of black anti-Semitism. (Author)

The field methods for data collection in a research project on linguistic change and variation in the Philadelphia speech community, their origins and use, are described. Five working principles of the project are detailed: (1) there are no single style speakers; (2) styles can be ranged along a single dimension, according to the attention paid to…

This paper describes procedures that resulted in a 90 percent return in a random sample survey of inner-city youth. Included are: selection of interview sites; recordkeeping; call-backs; techniques for dealing with reluctant interviewees; and composition of interview teams, including sex and ethnic matching with sample members. (SJL)

Compares the results of two survey designs administered to visitors of three South African nature reserves to ascertain changes in conservation awareness. Explains the method, data collection, questionnaire design, statistical tests, pretests, pilot studies, results, and conclusions of the study. Finds that no statistical differences between…

This manual, which is intended for vocational education and training (VET) providers, does the following: explains fundamental market research concepts; highlights situations where market research can help VET providers with their planning and policy development; and illustrates the uses of market research in VET institutions. The following topics…

This handbook, which was written by researchers with expertise in Australia's technical and further education (TAFE) system, provides background information about the following: approaches to research in vocational education and training (VET); the range of methods normally used in research and their the application to VET; and procedures for…

Participatory research is an approach that calls for a democratic interaction between the researcher and those among whom the research is conducted. While this approach has been implemented with both individuals and groups in a wide variety of settings such as geographic communities, workplace situations, adult learning groups, community issue…