The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care is an ongoing, prospective, 3-year longitudinal study of over 1,300 full-term healthy infants and families from 10 sites across the United States. While the sample is not nationally representative, the subjects come from major regions of the country: the…

This study used a logistic probability model to investigate the effects of variables relating student characteristics and institutional factors on the decision to apply to a large land-grant research university. The study used the entire data set from American College Testing (ACT) program test-takers in the fall of 1995 and institutional data on…

A pentagonal model, based on the star model of function understanding of C. Janvier (1987), is presented as a framework for the design and interpretation of research in the area of learning the concept of mathematical function. The five vertices of the pentagon correspond to five common representations of mathematical function: (1) graph; (2)…

This report provides an outline of the Urban Teacher Education Program (UTEP), describes curriculum development and delivery, and discusses the progress that has been made toward program goals. UTEP is a school district/university consortium for school-based professional preparation and development. Members of the consortium include: Indiana…

An approach to educational research that is receiving renewed attention is participatory action research (PAR), which emphasizes a bottom-up approach to research as well as useful outcomes. PAR is a philosophy, and not a methodology per se. It is a deliberate, goal-directed, structured, and applied means of obtaining information that looks to…

To gather data on the place of community colleges in the overall structure of American postsecondary education, a study was conducted of state-level administrators of community colleges regarding the practice of baccalaureate degree-granting institutions offering programs of upper-division collegiate credit at community colleges. Administrators…

A study of the impact of economic differentiation on institutional pricing and expenditure policies, higher education public policy, and governance in public colleges and universities is described. It is suggested that economic differentiation is a likely determinant of variation in institutional expenditure and pricing policies and higher…

Industrial education has reached the stage of evolution where a major transition is required if it is to continue as a viable field of education and contribute to the solution of some of society's significant and critical problems. If industrial arts practitioners are to guide their field through an orderly transformation, they must follow a…

This paper describes a conceptual framework for studying the family environment that (1) incorporates recent advances in understanding multiple social influences on behavior; (2) recognizes common and idiosyncratic characteristics of families as social units; (3) identifies research strategies that can be used to assess families; and (4) generates…

Background information is provided on the development and activities of Project Cooperation, a demonstration project to help institutions improve educational effectiveness by employing outcomes measures and assessment strategies. After highlighting the various activities of the project (e.g., a national survey, research on different plans and…

Five workplans were developed for the National Center for Education Statistics' (NCES) educational indicators program. The implementation of these workplans will be useful to both NCES staff and users of NCES data and will provide opportunities for joint working relationships among the authors, consultants, and NCES staff. The five plans call for…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is compared to the two studies of the National Educational Longitudinal Studies (NELS) Program--the National Longitudinal Study of the Class of 1972 (resurveyed in 1973, 1974, 1976, and 1979) and the 1980 High School and Beyond study (partially resurveyed and retested in 1982). The third phase…

This evaluation report summarizes the impact of the Hartford Effective Schools Initiative (HESI) during the 1984-85 implementation year and is based on: (1) interview and observation data gathered during two day visits to each of the three schools in April and May and compared with similar data collected from the same teachers, facilitators,…

In 1981, the developers of a school-based change effort engaged researchers to conduct an evaluation study employing qualitative methodology that would provide the developers with information that could be used to improve the program. Resource constraints, short timelines, and the developers' preference for useable information encouraged…

At the request of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Educational Research and Improvement, the Panel to Evaluate the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) was established in 1985 by the National Academy of Sciences. This report culminates an extensive two-year study of NCES and reflects the panel's broad view of the center's…