This document describes the research design that will guide the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory's efforts in constructing procedural knowledge ("know-how" or working knowledge) needed to transform low-performing school districts and schools into high-performing learning communities. Little is known about procedural knowledge…

Responding to an increasingly urgent need for collaboration between mathematicians and mathematics educators, the study reported in this paper engages mathematicians as educational co-researchers in a series of themed Focus Group interviews where a pre-distributed sample of mathematical problems, typical written student responses, observation…

We can fill the gap between theory (of ambitious teacher education) and practice (in mathematics classrooms) more easily, when we take into account that teacher education is not only explicit acquisition of knowledge and methods but also development of individual personal constructs of mathematics and mathematics education. But how can we get…

This paper provides an overview of the data collection, analysis, and reporting system of the British Columbia Ministry of Education, a system that is intended to improve the results obtained by the school system. The background of the system is described, and how it is used to assist in school improvement is outlined. The system's success to date…

High schools are increasingly expected to use data for improvement and to provide evidence that programs and instructional practices are preparing all students to develop essential knowledge and skills. This publication describes how schools can develop the capacity to analyze and use data as a core component of improving secondary schools using…

The initiatives taken by one school district to support professional development for principals in using data for school planning and reform were studied. A data-planning training model was developed in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) (California) to build skills principals need to read, interpret, and use multiple sources of…

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) partnered with Andrew Porter and John Smithson of Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) to develop an advanced, in depth approach to collecting and reporting data on the "enacted curriculum" in K-12 math and science, i.e. the actual subject content and instructional practices experienced…

In this volume, researchers, practitioners, participants, and scholars address the proliferation of methodologies, ethical and disciplinary concerns, and issues of equity and diversity such research raises from a wide variety of viewpoints. "Acts of Inquiry in Qualitative Research" also presents a broad assortment of articles by authors…

It is the purpose of this paper to discuss one qualitative research method, participant observation, which describes and analyzes a setting based on data that has been laboriously and systematically collected and analyzed. (Author/RK)

Seven institutional research maxims based on research and theory about how people cognitively process information are discussed: more may not be better; augment humans with models; chunk data wisely; know decision-makers; heuristics are not always helpful; arrange tables by patterns; and accept negative evidence and new hypotheses. (Author/MLW)

Analysis of relationship of television content to preschool children's play based on observations at day care center reveals that television is source of content in play; television-facilitated games are not "new"; developmental differences exist in use of television content in play; use of television content in play has positive consequences.…

Discusses problems involved in estimating federal financial support for education by the type of ultimate recipient (such as school districts or students), especially using data from recipients. Proposes a new approach based on data from federal aid-givers and applies the method to federal budget data for fiscal year 1980. (RW)

Presents the state-of-the-art of information systems monitoring, addressing historical and current approaches and manual and automated techniques; develops the concept of automated monitoring into a well-defined methodology; formulates methodologies/techniques/theoretical foundations for analyzing monitored data; and discusses computer based…

This study on the relationship between user preferences, library characteristics, and library use, employed a sample of 655 students in five medical schools. Findings, which support some traditional principles relating library characteristics to use, indicate that neither availability of audiovisual materials nor comfortable physical environment…

The Judicial Evaluation Method (JEM) is useful for aiding decision-making bodies to formulate policies. Broad public participation in complex issues is provided by JEM. (The conceptualization, policy formulation stages, and participant roles are identified; and the model is applied in two case studies). (MH)