Conceptual and pragmatic issues relevant to the study of persons with autism are addressed within the context of comparison groups and matching strategies. We argue that no choice of comparison group or matching strategy is perfect, but rather needs to be determined by specific research objectives and theoretical questions. Thus, strategies can…

Anxiety disorders are among the most common psychological disturbances in the industrialized world. Current behavioral therapy procedures for these disorders are somewhat effective, but their efficacy could be substantially improved. Because these procedures are largely based on the process of extinction, manipulations that enhance extinction may…

It is curious that so many people are accepting of statistics despite Disraeli's famous aphorism concerning "three kinds of lies." This acceptance certainly seems to hold for education statistics, especially when they imply something negative about American public schools. Sometimes people accept statistics because they are not in a position to…

This article discusses the increasing number of schools that met all of their 2004 annual achievement targets under U.S. federal law. Over half the states released at least preliminary lists of the number of schools that had made adequate yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind Act, based on 2003-04 test data. In general, the percentage of…

The following study interprets the results of a research carried out in 2008 in Romania, on a smaller sample. The aim of the study is the analysis of the text comprehension skills of 14 year old pupils, and the presentation of the connections with the social background, learning styles and school performance. The gathering of the data was…

The academy schools programme in England is presented by Government as the means by which increased diversity and private participation in the provision of public education can be used to solve educational and wider social problems. The entrepreneurial features of academy schools are examined, through a study of the sponsors and the ethos, values…

This paper analyses technology-based instruction on data-analysis with box plots. Examples of instruction taken from the research literature inform a study of two classes of 17 year-old students (upper secondary) in which the mathematical relationships that their teachers targeted are distinguished as being, or not being, relevant to statistical…

The role of curriculum-based data in educational decision making, particularly with regard to the assistive technology (AT) consideration process, has become increasingly important. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and other demands for school accountability require teachers to be more thoughtful about all decisions regarding students…

Problems inherent in relying solely on statistical significance testing as a means of data interpretation are reviewed. The biggest problem with statistical significance testing is that researchers have used the results of this testing to ascribe importance or meaning to their studies where such meaning often does not exist. Often researchers…

Research results should not be taken at face value; some research is not well designed, and readers must be able to assess whether the research carried out actually supports the results or may be explained otherwise. Research reports are usually divided into introduction or literature review, methods, results, and discussion and conclusions. Basic…

A personal understanding of the concepts of scholarship, knowledge, and research is presented. The basic task of scholarship is to study reality with a view to finding out what it is like, the relations of different parts to each other, and the applications to which the findings can lead. The scholarly search must be a rational procedure.…

This report discusses the nature of research in the context of distance education and suggests that qualitative research be included as a research methodology for distance education research. Noting that qualitative research represents a shift toward more perceptual, context-embedded interpretive inquiry, the paper argues that it is well suited to…

Use of "special" orthonormal mean contrasts and mean contrast variances can help educational researchers interpret a wide variety of repeated measures data. Most statistical packages allow educational researchers to test for differences across repeated measures using both the univariate mixed model F test and a multivariate test.…

Individual marital therapy (IMT) is therapy in which one or both spouses are treated separately by different therapists who do not communicate with each other about treatment. Gurman and Kniskern (1978) reported an improvement rate of 48% and a deterioration rate of 11.6% for nonbehavioral IMT. These outcome data and the conclusions drawn from…

Dedicated to describing all U.S. states' and territories' arts agencies at the close of 1974, this research report complies and analyzes information about their: (1) structure, management, organization, and relationships with other groups and organizations; (2) functions and practices; and (3) receipts and expenditures. State governing councils…