The study of teacher effectiveness is confronted by a number of problems that are generally associated with the conduct of behavioral research. It is possible in some instances to resolve or circumvent some of the current methodological stumbling blocks that tend to reduce the credibility of research findings. This paper discusses three…

Maintains that there is an inconsistency in the regression analysis of the data presented in Maureen J. Lage and Michael Treglia's 1996 article, "The Impact of Integrating Scholarship on Women into Introductory Economics." The authors admit the error, correct it, and report no difference in their original conclusions. (MJP)

Reports on a study of innovative city and county government programs in four western states. The study discovered widely divergent assessments of the same programs, dependent upon whether the survey instruments used qualitative or quantitative techniques. Discusses the possible reasons for this and the implications for future research. (MJP)

This report examines the educational opportunities offered by specially funded comprehensive secondary schools established in Israeli development towns during the 1960s. The results of an analysis of the 1980-81 academic year budgets of 51 schools in 26 towns, and an examination of the schools' absorption of students and their holding power, are…

Approaches to studying the relationships between stress and school organizational sources of stress were examined. Rather than sampling a number of schools and school average data indicating school health and stress levels in these schools, simple teacher samples and teacher-level analyses were used. For a sample of 1300 high school teachers in…

The Consortium on Methodology for Aggregating Data in Educational Research was designed as a collaborative effort by research methodologists from economics, education and sociology. Consortium goals were to delineate what was known about the problems associated with the analysis of data from the multiple levels (pupil, teacher/classroom, school)…

This publication is primarily designed for educational practitioners who possess little or no training in conducting mail surveys or have not kept current on the present state of the art of survey methods and techniques. It is also intended to be a checking and comparing aid to ensure that important research considerations are taken into account.…

Research is a useful tool for educators because of its ability to uncover causal relationships between variables that are often obscured in field investigations. This textbook presents basic methodological information that has been designed for and proven to assist the educator who seeks to move himself from the laboratory to the field. The book…

Parochial and other private secondary schools in the United States enroll disproportionately few Blacks. Coleman, Hoffer, and Kilgore discounted this segregation. However, their analysis of within-district segregation is inappropriate and misleading. If future analysis of an appropriate data set is undertaken, standard analysis-of-variance methods…

The existence of private schools does not necessarily lead to greater school segregation as Taeuber-James argue. Cain-Goldberger are not only incorrect in their discussion of methodology but they also misinterpret the data and misquote the authors. Morgan's efforts to use new data on Catholic schools are applauded. (IS)

Chapter 1 of this report and user's manual describes design and implementation of the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS). Chapter 2 reviews stages of sampling for national and state survey components; presents weighted and unweighted response rates for the household component; and describes non-incentive and prison sample designs. Chapter…

Despite their claim to the contrary, Walsh and Carballo in their report, "Transitional Bilingual Education in Massachusetts: A Preliminary Study of Its Effectiveness" (1986), did not demonstrate the superiority of bilingual education because their study was marred by a number of problems, here identified. (BJV)

Projecting demand for vocational education teachers for a 5-year period has many methodological problems. For example, how does one define the "need for additional personnel" or determine the difference in demand for and supply of teachers? The demand figure changes drastically depending on how it is measured, while the supply changes…

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…

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…