A review and evaluation were conducted of social science research that has been based upon the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS) of Labor Market Experience. First, a comprehensive survey was undertaken of the labor market research that has used NLS data: (1) labor supply and the factors of female and male labor, child care and welfare, and…

Four evaluation methods for determining educational policy are objectivism; subjectivism; emotive-imperative; and instrumentalism. For the objectivist, the rationale for undertaking an evaluation is based on empirical verification or non-verification of claims of existing policies or activities. Secondly, the objectivist is interested in…

Issues associated with the evaluation of 61 educational curriculum units, which was conducted by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) are described. The units were adapted to the AIR Career Education Curriculum framework by creating 133 instructional units within which students could develop career skills in an orderly sequence. The…

Longitudinal studies conducted with children typically experience non-response problems that can make substantial inroads on sample size and introduce bias into the analysis. Three methods for limiting non-response in school-based research programs were assessed: (1) asking parents to return consent forms only if they do not want their children to…

A study assessed the feasibility of conducting a national cost-benefit analysis of vocational education and presented recommendations for future research on the relationship between vocational education costs and benefits. Following an analysis of the state of the art in utilizing cost-benefit methodologies to evaluate vocational education, a…

The methodological parameters of evaluative research studies help to identify a conceptualization of the phenomenon under investigation. Holistic critiques that identify the conceptual models under which the research was conducted shed light on the validity of the disparate inferences made from a number of studies of schools and school…

Directors of educational projects need to be aware of the consequences their decisions may have for evaluation and appreciate the need for working closely with their evaluators from the earliest planning stage. Attempting to address the needs of project directors and evaluators, this guidebook deals with one central aspect of project…

This guide is essentially designed as a teaching aid for those who would inform planners, officials of educational ministries, school administrators, principals, and teachers about educational outcome measurements. In outline and graphic form, the guide presents topics for discussion in a seminar dealing with the application of outcome…

Measuring cognitive achievement gains in project evaluation is dealt with. This guide provides those concerned with project evaluation with the basic tools for conducting technically sound, interpretable evaluation studies. Exotic designs are avoided and five basic models which appear feasible to implement in real-world settings are focused on.…

A study conducted at one large research university compared electronic mail and telephones as methods for gathering survey data from undergraduate students. Problems associated with electronic-mail use include higher rate of socially undesirable activity among respondents and difficulty in identifying the target population. Implications for campus…

A study reviewed the measurement problems that would confront a study team performing a national cost-benefit analysis of vocational education and presented alternative strategies to overcome these measurement problems and to provide input into assessing the feasibility of conducting a national cost-benefit study. To meet these objectives,…

American Indian participation in educational research suffers from minimal involvement of tribal people in the research effort, the obtrusive role of researchers, controversies over the content of published research, and inadequate preparation of researchers sensitive to American Indian community needs. Existing supplementary training methods to…

Accurate data on the number of students who transfer from two-year colleges to senior colleges are not available because the ways of counting transfers vary greatly from system to system and state to state. While most studies define transfer students as those who have taken courses at a community college and subsequently enroll at a senior…

Under Project Concern minority group children in Hartford, Conn., were bused to 33 elementary schools in five suburban school systems. The goals were to change the de facto desegregation of the inner city schools, to design an effective, supportive educational intervention program to arrest and remediate school failure, and to evaluate the…

The proceedings of this forum contain 23 papers focusing mainly on the technical aspects of institutional research. Most of the authors are institutional research officers in various colleges and universities. Part 1 contains papers on institutional research methodology. They deal with such topics as faculty load studies, enrollment projections,…