With millions of dollars being invested in adult rural leadership development, it is essential that research be conducted to determine the effectiveness of this investment. Such research can validate the investment and provide guidance for future programming. However, an extensive review of literature in Cambridge Scientific Abstracts yielded only…

Social skills training has been recommended as an intervention for students having difficulty establishing meaningful social relationships with peers and teachers in school settings. Several meta-analyses of the relevant literature have shown weak to moderate effects, whereas other syntheses have shown somewhat larger effects. The meta-analyses…

This literature review summarizes research on online teaching and learning. It is organized into four topics: course environment, learners' outcomes, learners' characteristics, and institutional and administrative factors. The authors found little consistency of terminology, discovered some conclusive guidelines, and identified developing lines of…

The National Early Literacy Panel (NELP) was appointed in 2002 and carried out its work under the auspices of the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL). NELP's primary goal was to identify interventions, parenting activities, and instructional practices that promote the development of children's early literacy skills. The National Institute…

In order to determine the relevance and provide suggestions for needs assessment in western Kansas, this document examines 81 theses that are relevant to the topic. The implications of the study are as follows: (1) programs within schools and communities in western Kansas are having little effect on important populations; (2) restructuring within…

This document presents reports of three projects to identify and analyze the appropriate use of instruction in Braille, optical devices, and other technologies as they relate to literacy and employment of individuals who are blind or visually impaired. The first project examined the choice of reading medium of 68 individuals (blind or visually…

Focusing on the factors that contribute to success in school, this book provides a vital resource for parents, psychologists and educators. A 6-year study that closely followed high-achieving poor and minority students is described. More than 1,000 fifth and sixth grade students in public and private schools took part in the study. This book…

In this paper, meta-analysis is used to identify components that are associated with effective metacognitive training programs in reading research. Forty-three studies, with an average of 81 students per study, were synthesized. It was found that metacognitive training could be more effectively implemented by using small-group instruction, as…

To help clarify the meaning of three social constructs (class, race/ethnicity, and gender) that have been persistent indicators of reading ability, a literature review examined 393 research reports published between 1985 and 1989 in four major journals that commonly present research on reading. Articles for the review were selected regardless of…

The report summarizes 27 research studies which examined the attitudes and perspectives of parents of currently or formerly institutionalized people with mental retardation concerning movement from institutional to community placements. Several trends were evident. Parents whose offspring were living in institutions at the time of the survey were…

In response to critics' charges that use of the word processor may have a detrimental effect on writing, this study identified and analyzed 20 published studies that used experimental and control groups to compare conventional writing instruction (using handwriting) with instruction using the word processor. Five types of outcomes were analyzed:…

This paper focuses on a critical analysis and reanalysis of two earlier multisection validity meta-analyses of student ratings of instruction. The reanalysis is based on a sharpening of criteria for: (1) including studies in the meta-analysis; (2) defining key study characteristics that influence results; and (3) calculating the correlational…

After a brief introduction identifying current issues and trends in research on class size, this brochure reviews five recent studies bearing on the relationship of class size to educational effectiveness. Part 1 is a review of two interrelated and highly controversial "meta-analyses" or statistical integrations of research findings on…

Distance educators, particularly those in developing countries, are facing the implementation of massive education programs with little research to guide them. Some developing countries have used established programs from other countries as models to provide low-cost instruction for basic literacy and job training; however, in many cases, they are…

The use of meta-analysis in industrial and organizational psychology has become quite common. Unfortunately, the understanding and research necessary to ensure appropriate application of the technique have not been as widespread. As part of a larger study, a content analysis of meta-analyses from the industrial and organizational psychological…