The Education Trust research report "Stuck Schools" suggests a framework for identifying chronically low-performing schools in need of turnaround. The study uses Maryland and Indiana to show that some low-performing schools make progress while others remain stagnant. The report has four serious problems of reliability and validity,…

Investigates the question of under what conditions can one infer that some observed relationship between two empirical variables reflects more than that they are both indicants of the same construct. (RC)

This article examines feminist research, neo-Marxist critical ethnography, and Freirian "empowering" research in order to reconceptualize validity within the context of openly ideological research. Issues of importance to openly ideological researchers are discussed. (MT)

Questions traditional approach to validating employment interview. Notes that individuals are likely to differ in ability to accurately predict employee behavior and that interviewers often differ in their constant tendency to make favorable or unfavorable ratings. Researchers, by failing to consider these tendencies, may inappropriately collapse…

This highly readable text demystifies the qualitative research process--and helps readers conceptualize their own studies--by organizing the different research paradigms and traditions into coherent clusters. Real-world examples and firsthand perspectives illustrate the research process; instructive exercises and activities build on each other so…

The authors offer a detailed and systematic critique of Piaget's theory of cognitive development, examining it in relation to other theories of development. Chapter 1 points out some of the problems in building and evaluating scientific theories and considers contrasting approaches to cognitive development (including those which focus on…

It is argued that time generalizability exists independent of population and situation generalizability, although the three may interact. Problems associated with sampling and randomization efficacy over time are discussed. (Author/GK)

Agrees with the power of randomized clinical trials, but makes the case that random assignment raises other, unanticipated threats to internal validity as a result of failing to consider treatment preference in research participant behavior. Reviews benefits and limitations of research strategies that augment randomization while respecting…

The purpose of the present paper is to emphasise the importance of inferences in an empirical study and to demonstrate how the inferences depend on a wider context. For that purpose a metamodel of central inferences is proposed, where each inference is characterised according to three dimensions: relevance, legitimacy, and validity. The relevance…

Introduction: The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) provides guidelines for continuing medical education (CME) materials to mitigate problems in the independence or validity of content in certified activities; however, the process of peer review of materials appears largely unstudied and the reproducibility of…

The new "Weighted Student Formula Yearbook 2009" from the Reason Foundation provides a simple framework for touting the successes of states and urban school districts that grant greater fiscal autonomy to schools. The report defines the Weighted Student Formula (WSF) reform extremely broadly, presenting a variety of reforms under the WSF umbrella.…

The mood-dependent retrieval hypothesis states that mood will enhance recall by acting as a recall cue if the stimuli have been learned initially in the same mood. Material learned in a happy mood will be best recalled when the person returns to a happy mood; the same holds for a sad mood. Mood-dependent retrieval effect has been regulary…