Classroom observations are an integral part of qualitative educational research. Traditionally, classroom observations have been done in-person, with one or more researchers being physically present in a classroom to observe and take field notes. With the proliferation of video technology, researchers are now able to conduct classroom observations…

This study is designed to reveal the research trends of graduate theses published in the field of computer programming in K-12 between 2018 and 2022. Document analysis was used for data collection in this study. The data was divided into 9 categories, and the results demonstrated that the scholars in the Departments of Computer Educational and…

"Expanding Choice in Elementary and Secondary Education: A Report on Rethinking the Federal Role in Education" presents a seemingly egalitarian prescription for the federal government to expand school choice. An examination of the arguments and evidence for increasing choice, however, reveals at least three important shortcomings. First, the…

The CATO Institute's Policy Analysis "They Spend WHAT? The Real Cost of Public Schools" contends that the figures most commonly associated with spending on K-12 public education do not include all relevant expenditures. It also cites survey evidence suggesting that voters underestimate the cost of education and, when presented with a higher…

The Education Trust research report "Stuck Schools" suggests a framework for identifying chronically low-performing schools in need of turnaround. The study uses Maryland and Indiana to show that some low-performing schools make progress while others remain stagnant. The report has four serious problems of reliability and validity,…

Reviews three special-purpose forecasting methods (population-ratio techniques, Bell Telephone method, method of analogy, and multiple-factor method) and three methods of universal applicability (the cohort-survival, percentage- survival, and law-of-growth methods) to help administrators grasp enrollment forecasting technicalities. A comparison…

The relevance of ethnographic research to evaluation of educational programs is discussed. The author focuses on evaluation questions that deal with finding out what is happening in a program and if what is happening is desirable. Ethnography suits the purposes of evaluators who answer such questions because they want to know how something works…

This paper offers a reliability analysis of the teacher questionnaire used in the Teacher Education and Learning to Teach (TELT) Study conducted by the National Center for Research on Teacher Education (NCRTE). Data for the study were collected from 648 teachers and prospective teachers at 11 teacher education program sites throughout the United…

Three goals must be met in order for the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to improve the quality and utility of its data collection: (1) the choice of what to collect must be driven by the questions of interest to decisionmakers and the public; (2) procedures must insure validity and reliability of the data; and (3) the data must be…

Focusing on the use of the interview in the Procedures for Adopting Educational Innovations (PAEI) Project, this paper reports on the appropriateness of the interview as a research tool in change research and the types of information appropriate to its use. In this project, interviews are used to identify what an individual is doing, has done, or…

Discusses the development of a Student Attitude Survey and describes initial efforts to test the validity and reliability of the survey instrument. (JG)

Describes a method for coding themes directly from audiotapes without transcription and issues and methods by which reliability can be established. A study of concerns of professionals being trained on 11 school-based support teams coded by 2 raters and based on 19 hours of audiotaped interviews illustrates the method. (SLD)

Evaluation of two meta-analyses of sociometric research on children with learning disabilities notes differences in their findings. Differences are attributed to effects of gender, ethnicity, and type of measurement on effect size; inadequate reporting of coding reliability; failure to include similar articles for analysis; and poor…

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has been conducting the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) since 1969. In addition to conducting regular assessments in reading, mathematics, science, and writing, the NAEP conducts assessments in other subjects, such as geography, U.S. history, civics, and the arts. Each national…

For successful classification of children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, major issues include (1) the need for explicit studies of identification criteria; (2) the need for systematic sampling strategies; (3) development of hypothetical classifications; and (4) systematic assessment of reliability and validity of hypothetical…