Discusses use of data for determining institutional effectiveness; identifies availability of national programs for student outcomes data collection, need for better qualitative and quantitative data, and influence of data on decision making. Review problems related to reporting data and using them in decision-making process. Concludes with…

Through a layered analysis that reinterprets previous research experience with middle-schoolers, considers how being positioned researchers changes the interpretations or texts inscribed on their research interactions. Researchers create texts that unintentionally conceal the direction and nature of their "invasiveness." Conundrums abound in…

Discusses structural components of databases that require data-mining algorithms and describes the SUBDUE system that is designed to discover knowledge in structural databases. Analyses the ability of SUBDUE to scale to large databases and describes parallel and distributed implementations to investigate methods for improving the scalability of…

Explores ways of improving the confidence and competence of children and teachers in data handling and interpretation. (Author/CCM))

Discusses the importance of images in the publishing and presentation of scientific research. Explains the use of photographs as scientific data in research. Lists some reasons for the manipulation of images, and clarifies the acceptable and unacceptable limits of manipulation and image manipulation policy. (Author/YDS)

Responds to a critique in this issue of earlier articles in this journal. Explains that the project was not designed to conceptualize the study of business communication; that as researchers they cannot refrain from drawing conclusions and limiting those conclusions to the data observed; and they do not consider all research not based on…

Compares the results of seven articles written by career counselors to interpret interest inventories completed by a 29-year-old female high school teacher faced with several occupational opportunities. The article is organized by function across inventory. (MKA)

Responds to an article that questioned the authors' previous attempts to define "subject difficulty" and compare subjects based on their level of difficulty. Argues that "subject difficulty" is a reasonable term and is important to the interpretation of examination data. Questions arguments that only qualitative judgments of…

Menges identifies four areas of educational research in which data is substantial but much less useful than it could be: faculty behaviors and intentions; technology-mediated instruction; effective evaluative decisions and context-specific research. He suggests some directions for future research. (JM)

This paper describes guidelines for reporting findings from studies using single subject methods, an approach from which early intervention has benefited substantially. Guidelines address: the foundations of the study, what was done to whom under what situations, what the data say, and what the findings mean. (Contains references.) (DB)

Multicollinearity is a well-known general problem, but it also seriously threatens valid interpretations in structural equation models. Illustrating this problem, J. Pietsch, R. Walker, and E. Chapman (2003) found paths leading to achievement were apparently much larger for self-efficacy (.55) than self-concept (-.05), suggesting--erroneously, as…

As a tour de force, data mining is likely to gain wider use in the next few years. To facilitate this transition, we make several recommendations addressed to both institutional research professionals and the Association of Institutional Research.

Data that is meaningful and purposeful is collected to assess the state of our library media programs, services and policies. The way in which one can develop the skills required to collect, analyze, interpret, present, and use data is presented.

Perceptual speech assessment is central to the evaluation of speech outcomes associated with cleft palate and velopharyngeal dysfunction. However, the complexity of this process is perhaps sometimes underestimated. To draw together the many different strands in the complex process of perceptual speech assessment and analysis, and make…

Overall the past decade has not been kind to educational research. First, some "research" has been subordinated to and corrupted by ideology. Second, there has been substantial questioning of what educational research should be and a fear that the federal government is moving to a rigid orthodoxy in defining what counts as…