Previous research has found the field of higher education, particularly in the United States, is dominated by functionalist approaches, a preponderance of survey data, and the ubiquitous use of advanced quantitative methods to investigate educational phenomena. This descriptive study aims to illuminate why the field is constructed in this way.…

Sociology research methods students in 2013 and 2016 implemented a series of "real world" data gathering activities that enhanced their learning while assisting the department with ongoing program assessment and program review. In addition to the explicit collection of program assessment data on both students' development of sociological…

We estimate the trend in the transitory variance of male earnings in the United States using the Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics from 1970 to 2004. Using an error components model and simpler but only approximate methods, we find that the transitory variance started to increase in the early 1970s, continued to increase through the…

Political Science research methods courses face two problems. First is what to cover, as there are too many techniques to explore in any one course. Second is dealing with student anxiety around quantitative material. We explore a novel way to approach these issues. Our students began by writing a qualitative paper. They followed with a term…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of group testing as a pedagogical technique to enhance learning in a difficult subject such as statistics. Individual test scores were compared to their group test scores for the same, identical test. A t test was used to compare the scores for 157 randomly selected MBA students enrolled…

Social scientists with an interest in education policy have devoted a great deal of time in recent years to assessing if the level of per pupil school expenditures is related to any outputs of formal education that are valued by our society. In this paper we develop several alternative models for the purpose of estimating the effects of per pupil…

A statistical and analytical procedure for selecting states for the purpose of comparing their postsecondary systems with New Jersey's is detailed by a public commission appointed by the New Jersey Board of Higher Education. The approach used factor analysis to examine information on specific variables that describe the socioeconomic and…

In this paper, we respond to the criticisms and concerns raised by D.V. Cicchetti, A.S. Kaufman, & S.S. Sparrow (this issue) in their review of the PCB literature, with particular attention to our own research in Michigan. We agree that multiple comparisons and functional significance are issues that would benefit from more discussion.…

This study examined factors associated with the curriculum and instructional environments for secondary students with mild mental retardation, based on teacher report. A survey was mailed to 378 secondary special education teachers in Michigan. Teachers provided demographic information and answered questions regarding curriculum and instructional…