Discusses the range and limitations of local and regional case studies based on studies of the educational history of Berlin (Germany), Jewish school systems under National Socialism, and women's education. Examines their content-related results as well as their systematic significance for research on the history of education (DSK)

Mentoring programs cannot always obliterate deficiencies in adult/child relationships or better student achievement. Two successful programs are the Big Brother/Big Sister program and the Office of Juvenile Justice's Juvenile Mentoring Program. (JUMP). Social support, not social control, is essential. Sidebars contain program tips and selected…

Achievement in reading, math, science, and social studies was examined among rural, suburban, and urban school students using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988. Controlling for socioeconomic status and using nationally representative samples of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders, rural student achievement equalled or exceeded…

School effectiveness and school effectiveness researchers have increasingly sought to establish synergy between their respective fields, but differing organizational change perspectives have produced an irresolvable methodological and theoretical divide. Incorporating the "power" concept provides a bridge between structural and cultural analysis…

Looks at how "scientifically based" literacy research promoting the direct, explicit, and systematic use of phonics and related word skills in beginning reading instruction is having a massive effect on policy and practice. Examines what this research claims to have found and what it actually shows. Discusses how it harms research,…

A total of 1,311 administrators, teachers, staff, and students from an elementary, a junior high, and two high school campuses in a large school district completed the Charles F. Kettering School Climate Profile. Primary and secondary principal components analysis suggested subscales different from those given for the Kettering instrument. (SLD)

Results of studies involving over 10,000 college students, adolescents, and teachers indicate that the models, paradigms, and methods used to teach cognitive skills, enhance cognitive learning, impact affective learning, or otherwise lead to new behaviors are ineffective for learning about sex. Outlines challenges and priorities for educational…

Discusses results of a survey of special librarians that investigated research knowledge and activities. Topics include formal and informal training in research methodology; continuing education; barriers to research, including a lack of institutional support; and the disinterest in and lack of understanding about research and its relevance to…

Asserts that Herrnstein and Murray's "The Bell Curve" (1994) is an attempt to influence and control public discourse about public policy and inequality. It examines four of the book's flaws in classification, analyses, research, and its failure to recognize intelligence as having both genotypic and phenotypic manifestations. (GR)

Describes differences between systems-rationalist and subjectivist-interpretivist inquiry. Maintains that much of the enormous potential of subjectivist-interpretivist research could be lost due to the consequences of choices and compromises that researchers make in conceptualizing, proposing, and conducting subjectivist inquiry in the…

Describes research methods used and problems encountered in fieldwork with rural English youth. Discusses the researcher's positionality and self, making local connections and finding "gatekeepers," building trust with young people, issues of youth safety versus confidentiality, types of communication and parental consent, the…

Describes science educators trying to effect systemic change as actors in a cultural field struggling to change it. Uses a conversational hermeneutic analysis of autobiographical writings to examine some of the salient features of bringing about change in science education. (Contains 35 references.) (Author/WRM)

The authors examine the promises and prospects of using student engagement data to promote success at minority-serving institutions.

This chapter examines the current uses of alumni studies in the United Kingdom and outlines their challenges and limitations to informing policy and curriculum reform.

In an Internet study unrelated to handedness, 134,317 female and 120,783 male participants answered a graded question as to which hand they preferred for writing. This allowed determination of hand preference patterns across 7 ethnic groups. Sex differences in left-handedness were found in 4 ethnic groups, favoring males, while no significant sex…