This paper discusses three software packages that offer unique features and options that greatly simplify the research package for conducting surveys. The first package, EPSILON, from Resource Group, Ltd. of Dallas (Texas) is designed to perform a variety of sample size calculations covering most of the commonly encountered survey research…

This new edition offers an evaluation text that ranges from identifying the primary users of an evaluation to focusing the evaluation, making methods decisions, analyzing data, and presenting findings. Both practical and theoretical, the book tells how to conduct program evaluations and why they should be conducted in the manner prescribed. Each…

This study examined the relationships between students' academic achievement, income level, and ethnicity using aggregate school 3rd and 6th grade Iowa Test of Basic Skills scores for 1999 and 2000, 4th grade Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) scores for 1999 and 2000, and 7th grade WASL scores for 1999 for all schools in Washington…

Every spring there is a great exodus: graduating consultants depart from the writing lab, taking with them semesters and semesters of experience, and leaving a gap in the ranks of the staff. This paper discusses a way lab directors can learn from them: departing consultants wrote short essays entitled "Advice to the Future" which…

This paper discusses the use of tools for analyzing and visualizing data to synthesize knowledge from data. The first section notes the worsening problem of too much information, resulting from technology advances that have made fact or data look-up fast, efficient, and inexpensive. The second section presents a table of six data types (i.e.,…

Teaching through inquiry can take many forms with most descriptions of inquiry emphasizing investigations. Though inquiry-based teaching strategies typically engage students in investigations, it is not the physical activity that defines inquiry. Teaching through inquiry is distinguished by its emphasis on a questioning attitude, gathering data,…

Multilevel international data have been released from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), providing an opportunity to apply multilevel modeling techniques in educational research. In this paper, TIMSS factors are classified in fixed and random categories according to the project design. Classifying fixed and random…

This paper focuses on the role of collaboration in facilitating critical reflection and interpretation of data in a collaborative research project undertaken by school-based and university-based researchers. The popular image of research in the natural and social sciences has long been dominated by the figure of the lone researcher, but this image…

Although there has been a substantial decline in cigarette consumption among the adult population in the United States, use of cigarettes among the adolescent population has continued to grow. Since 1993, a disturbing increase in smoking among college students has been observed. This study attempts to reduce public smoking outside classroom…

Computer-mediated communication (CMC) is used in different contexts and uses different tools, such as those of computer conferencing, e-mail, and groupware. This article introduces the use of Formal Concept Analysis (FCA) as a methodology to visualize the data in CMC. FCA, which is based on a mathematical lattice theory, offers visual maps…

When normality does not hold, nonparametric tests represent an important data-analytic alternative to parametric tests. However, the use of nonparametric tests in educational research has been limited by the absence of easily performed tests for complex experimental designs and analyses, such as factorial designs and multiple regression analyses,…

This book explores the connections between infrastructure reform and poverty alleviation in Latin America based on a detailed analysis of the effects of a decade of reforms. The book demonstrates that because the access to, and affordability of, basic services is still a major problem, infrastructure investment will be a core component of poverty…

The City University of New York (CUNY) measures teaching workload according to credit hours taught by faculty. This information, as well as other personnel and faculty workload data, are recorded in CUNY's central administration's computerized City University Personnel System (CUPS). Each campus is required to submit electronically data on faculty…

The researchers of this article investigated a relationship between appearance and self concept that has had theoretical support but little research support. (Author/RK)

The prupose of this study was to investigate the effect of verbal reinforcement on the relationship between self-esteem and persistence. (Author)