The issues of achieving school desegregation and providing programs for students with special needs, while at the same time facing enrollment declines, have forced school administrators to improve techniques for projecting demand. This paper describes a new procedure that combines forecasting of enrollments and management of facilities and that…

Critically evaluates the methodologies used in three recent studies on poverty in Latin America. Maintains that some studies measure the relative nature of nutritional poverty while others record the absolute nature of nutritional poverty (physical survival). Includes a comparative analysis of the studies' results. (MJP)

Recounts an incident where a sociologist heard stories challenging violations concerning toxic chemicals. Lawyers advised that corroborating these stories would obligate the sociologist to inform the authorities, thereby jeopardizing his sources. Discusses the ineffectuality of the American Sociological Associations' code of ethics and legal…

Introduces a concise overview of societal changes and their implications for moral education. Asserts that moral education research will shift from a search for immutable truth to workable solutions. Boundaries between researcher and subject will become blurred as research is used to serve rather than observe the client. (MJP)

This bulletin examines some questions that arise when children are not ready for promotion: Should they be retained? Who decides? Are there alternatives to retention? What is the effect of retention on the student? Despite research limitations, those who examine the studies on grade repetition say they show that grade retention does not have a…

This final volume of a six-volume study of an elementary school called "Kensington" in a school district code-named "Milford," examines its own assumptions and procedures. After the brief, introductory chapter, which presents the methodological appendixes of the preceding volumes as a serial, chapter 2 discusses exploratory and…

In 1989, the Center for the Study of Community Colleges received a grant from the Ford Foundation to assist community colleges in defining their transfer rates and collecting data to support those definitions. The Center invited 240 community colleges with at least a 20% minority enrollment to participate in a Transfer Assembly. Interested…

Critiques a research study on ethnic and gender differences in a British secondary school physical education program. Discusses problems of small-scale research on race and gender. Concludes that Muslim values appear sexist and oppressive and that school-community cooperation can improve educational opportunities for all children. (CFR)

Considers problems wrought by protracted and potentially disruptive research conducted in school environments. Seeks to reconcile researcher and school interests. Presents a case study research project in which designating a teacher as a research assistant prevented many problems. Stresses maintaining cooperation and the importance of schools…

The paper discusses dilemmas in doing research on the kinds of teachers who are effective with Eskimo and Indian children in isolated, rural Alaska communities. Issues discussed are identification of effective cross-cultural teachers by a "multiple hurdle" technique; criteria that 228 teachers, 29 administrators, and 40 community members…

Social scientists have adopted two different views on the influence of the community and home on academic achievement of lower-class and minority students. The first is the deficit perspective, or the failure-of-socialization hypothesis. The second is the difference perspective, or the cultural-discontinuity/failure-of-communication hypothesis.…

Statistical issues associated with the supply and demand of science and mathematics teachers are reviewed in this conference report of the Committee on National Statistics. The conference was held to generate a plan for a study that would make recommendations to improve the information, sources, statistics, and models used in estimating and…

A think tank on researching family literacy was held to brainstorm a national research agenda for family literacy. The think tank brought together 12 researchers, policymakers, and practitioners involved in family literacy. Key themes emerging during the think tank were as follows: (1) family literacy is difficult to research because it is…

This collection of papers presents strategies for teaching students with mental retardation. An introduction by Robert A. Gable and Steven F. Warren titled "The Enduring Value of Instructional Research" reviews problems besetting special education instructional research and outlines the papers' approach to the field from both an empirical research…

Evaluates two British ethnographic studies by Bruce Carrington and Edward Wood, and by Cecile Y. Wright claiming to find evidence of teachers' racist attitudes and behaviors toward Afro-Caribbean students that contributed to student underachievement. Delineates methodological flaws. Argues that Wright's findings that the source of racism is in…