In describing several pitfalls associated with research on school and teacher effectiveness, the following aspects of effectiveness research are considered: correlation-causation relationship, controlling for background factors, statistical and practical significance, instrumentation problems, regression effects, measurement of change, nonlinear…

Notes that the most common educational research methods (large-scale surveys and field observations) have failed to examine the processes by which school participants create school structures. Advocates constitutive ethnography as a new approach and presents examples of its application in examining classrooms, lessons, educational testing, and…

Effective schools research problems (unreliable descriptions and definitions, over-dependency on tests, research limited primarily to elementary schools) result in narrow formulas leading to increased standardization, neglect of nonacademic areas, and failure to improve in schools with high test scores. Author urges using broader, more complex…

This article defends research evaluating similarities and differences in psychometric performances of students with learning disabilities (LD) and students with low achievement (LA), which concluded that psychometric test performance alone was an insufficient basis for differential diagnosis. Recent criticism of the research by Kenneth Kavale and…

Two analyses are provided to demonstrate that the population of students with learning disabilities is distinct from the population of low-achievers. Reasons for different interpretations of Bob Algozzine and colleagues' research are suggested. Assumptions surrounding the reality of learning disability are explored, as are differing perceptions…

Research in education has not been relevant because: 1) Decision makers have been making decisions without research findings and see no need for this kind of information now; 2) Research findings in the local schools are usually made available to the decision-maker or administrator after the decisions have been implemented; 3) Researchers feel the…

Beginning in 1950 the National Association for Research in Science Teaching and the U.S. Office of Education collaborated in preparing an annual summary of research in the teaching of science. The present bulletin continues their cooperative effort. This analysis of research in the teaching of science contains reports of published studies…