Declining academic performance, along with a growing apathy of students toward the value of education, demonstrates that students in the United States public education system do not recognize the value of a positive experience in middle schools. A plethora of research and writing has been done on elementary schools and secondary schools, but…

This enlightening handbook offers current, international perspectives on the conditions in communities, contemporary practices in schooling, relevant research on teaching and learning, and implications for the future of education. It contains diverse conceptual frameworks for analyzing existing issues in education, including but not limited to…

Presents a measure of the relative standing of professional journals in an aggregated journal citation matrix. The results of the application of the measure to a network of geographic journals during two time periods are reported and discussed. (35 references) (Author/CLB)

Institutional research, as an established profession, has not developed a professional code of ethics. Reasons for the lack of such a code are discussed, and an outline is presented of the three major areas of institutional research ethics: treatment of research participants, research practices, and socio-political dimensions. A simple procedure…

Since the measurement of school achievement involves the administration of achievement tests to various grades on various subjects, both grade level and subject matter contribute to within-school achievement variations. To determine whether achievement test scores vary most among different fields within a grade level, or within fields among…

Student disengagement from school is observed through withdrawal, absenteeism, low-level participation, and discipline problems. This article discusses research on student evaluation systems and presents a study on high school students and the extent to which they experience incompatibilities in the school's evaluation and authority system. (DF)

This study investigated the relationship between hemispherecity and college major in 275 undergraduate students. Results suggested that humanities majors prefer a diffuse divergent thinking style. Natural science and social science majors prefer an integrated or left model of intellectual functioning, though social science majors also preferred a…

A large data set of student ratings of college teaching was studied to explore previous indications that student ratings are affected by the subject area of instruction. Previous research by Marsh (1984), Feldman (1978), and Cranton and Smith (1986) reported the influence of factors other than instruction. To examine the impact of subject area on…

This report presents the results of a modified version of the 1983 Gallup Poll survey of parents of school-aged children in South Dakota. Parents of elementary and secondary school students were asked to grade the nation's and their state's schools and were surveyed on the following topics: their perceptions of the causes of discipline problems,…

A study in one private university classified four academic disciplines as hard or soft and pure or applied, then compared student evaluations of courses for organization, breadth of coverage, group interaction, enthusiasm, grading, and individual rapport. Results suggest a single evaluation form may not be appropriate for all disciplines.…

This study presents a process used to assess the general education component of the undergraduate curriculum, focusing particularly on the components of the methodology that provided the data used to suggesting changes in the program. The study was undertaken at an urban institution with an undergraduate population of 6,000, and involved analysis…

Some of the most commonly available and widely used tests and questionnaires relevant to campus assessment programs in subject areas, attitudes and satisfaction of students and former students, and other outcomes areas are listed. (MSE)