Vignettes, brief descriptions of fictional characters and situations, serve as a tool to study people's lives, perceptions, beliefs, and attitudes about specific situations. Although not widely used in library and information science (LIS) research, vignettes can depersonalize responses to controversial situations or behavioral responses related…

Special education teachers in California acquire advanced degrees, credentials, and authorizations to serve students with disabilities who are English language learners (SWD-ELLs), yet continue to be challenged to meet the complex instructional needs of these students. Performance on statewide tests of achievement show continued disparities…

In this important resource, Dr. Fleming (a noted expert in the field of minority retention) draws on educational evaluations she has developed in the course of her distinguished career. This book analyzes the common factors and the role institutional characteristics play in minority student retention to show what really works in increasing…

A survey of emergency preparedness was conducted in three public school districts in urban areas of Los Angeles County. Eighty-three school sites were surveyed using self-administered questionnaires. Although designated respondents generally felt that their schools were well prepared, the survey also revealed the need for improvements in written…

Marlborough School, which was founded in 1889 in Los Angeles, is an independent college preparatory day school for young women. When the author arrived in Marlborough School in 2005, she found that the school was an exciting place to learn but the library was not. However, head of school Barbara Wagner described her vision of the school's future…

A study was conducted to examine and evaluate the impact of the Cooperative Information Network (CIN) Staff Development Project (CIN-SD) in individual CIN libraries and to recommend methods for establishing on-going staff development programs in libraries. This report presents findings gathered from a survey employing questionnaires and…

A NUMBER OF PILOT STUDIES WERE CONDUCTED IN AN EDUCATIONAL INNOVATIONS SEMINAR HELD IN 1965 AT THE INSTITUTE OF GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS, UCLA, TO EXPLORE THE POTENTIALITIES OF APPLYING DELPHI TECHNIQUES TO PROBLEMS OF EDUCATIONAL PLANNING. THE RESPONDENTS FOR THESE EXPERIMENTS SUGGESTED SPECIFIC EDUCATIONAL INNOVATIONS AND BUDGET ALLOCATIONS…

This report details the design and results of a study commissioned by the California State Library to describe the everyday information needs of California citizens in the context of three societal trends that impact the operation of libraries and all other human services that define information delivery as part of their mandate: (1) emergence of…

A survey of 56 Californian academic libraries was conducted to investigate use of selection committees to recruit, screen, and/or select professional personnel. Size of responding libraries, background on selection committees, functions and authority of committees, reasons for use of selection committee, and perceptions about hiring practice are…

This paper explores auto-photography as a form of research practice in the area of identity and self-esteem research. It allows researchers to capture and articulate the ways identity guides human action and thought. It involves the generation and examination of the static images that participants themselves believe best represent them.…

THE THEME OF THIS PROGRAM WAS THE USE OF PROBABILISTIC MODELS AS MEASUREMENT TOOLS FOR EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN IN TEST CONSTRUCTION AND FOR ANALYSIS OF TEST DATA. SOME CENTRAL ISSUES IN THIS FIELD ARE DISCUSSED AND RESOLVED IN THE FIRST FOUR CHAPTERS OF THE REPORT UNDER THE FOLLOWING TITLES--(1) CONTRIBUTIONS TO ITEM SELECTION, (2) CLUSTERING…

This manual describes a comprehensive system of procedures or a model constructed for the purpose of improving occupational student follow-up in California community colleges. The manual deals with such pragmatic research considerations as conceptualization of research design, sampling, questionnaire content, suggestions for data processing, and…

Phase III, the development and testing of experimental programs to reduce the rate of student attrition, of the Northern California Cooperative Research Project (NORCAL) on Student Attrition is reported upon. Phase I of the program was the description and identification of characteristics associated with attrition among Junior College students…

UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE HISTORICAL EVALUATION AND RESEARCH ORGANIZATION, SCHOOL SYSTEMS IN FIVE MAJOR CITIES CONDUCTED SURVEYS TO INVESTIGATE PROBLEMS IN AMERICAN HISTORY INSTRUCTION. IT WAS FELT THAT THE LACK OF IDENTIFICATION WITH THE AMERICAN PAST AND THE CULTURAL AND SOCIAL ISOLATION OF MANY URBAN, DISADVANTAGED MINORITY GROUP CHILDREN…

As an extension to the development of the Student Accountability Model (SAM), California's vocational student follow-up system, a procedure for obtaining employer feedback information that could assist with occupational program review and evaluation was designed and tested. The design plan included the development of a consortium of community…