Discusses the growing use by educational psychologists and teachers of developmental and academic behavior checklists. Identifies the minimum criteria necessary for checklists and criticizes their use as many fail to meet these standards. Describes the limitations, misuse, and narrow focus of behavior checklists. (GEA)

Presents the statistical results for the theater for children component of the ASU Longitudinal Study, utilizing Dr. Patricia Goldberg's interview instrument, which categorizes the free responses of a child audience after viewing a theatrical production. (JC)

Policymakers at state and district levels disagree on definitions for terms such as "dropout,""withdrawn,""removed," and "early leaver." Until these terms acquire generally accepted meanings allowing comparisons across school district and state lines, existing information processing technology will be only marginally beneficial. Includes three…

The author proposes using an action research model to diagnose, develop, implement, and evaluate a career development (CD) program that fits the needs and goals of the organization. Phases of a CD program development plan (data gathering, analysis and synthesis, feedback, program development, pilot implementation, and tracking) are examined. (CT)

Describes Minnesota's Preschool Screening program, the first to offer free, voluntary health and developmental screening for state preschoolers, and a related Early Childhood Assessment project to deal with inconsistencies in diagnostic referral rates among school districts. Questions test validity, reliability, and standardization samples and…

This paper examines the major methodological advantages of random assignment for the purpose of estimating the effectiveness of current manpower policy. It also reviews the claimed methodological and ethical objections to experiments. The authors argue that the offsetting gain from experimentation is the inherent reliability of experimental…

Presents a research methodology related to needs assessment that can be used in a variety of settings in vocational education. It involves the use of small-group sessions and has five steps: introduction to meeting, silent generation of ideas, round-robin listing, discussion for clarification, and ranking of items. (Author/CT)

To improve school bus safety it is important to improve school bus data collection. Includes discussion of danger potential of older bridges and the importance of school bus drivers. (MD)

The authors explore the boundaries of ethnography (the use of some model of cultural process in both the gathering and interpretation of data). They define what is studied when one studies "culture," education as cultural transmission, and "good" ethnography as interpretation and cultural translation. (CT)

Surveyed attitudes toward the importance of privacy, seriousness of various privacy invasions, organizations that are trusted or mistrusted, etc. Concluded, among other findings, that most respondents were wary of possible invasions of privacy by the government but preferred government regulation of data collection by private businesses to…

Jurgen Habermas' theory relating to systems of action is used in an attempt to analyze the dynamic focus of home economics--the family--as a means of exploring the potential of the theory to promote understanding of family activities. (Author/CT)

Citation data for higher education journal articles published in the core literature from 1975 to 1981 are presented. Reference use trends are examined over the period covered by the research and by the role and institutional location of authors. Publishing medium, article type, and author demographic factors are discussed. (Author/MLW)

Questions are answered concerning the planning of an employer tuition aid study. Questions include: who will carry out the study, how will the information be used, how will the employers be selected, what information will be collected, how will the information be collection, and how will information be reported. (CT)

Compares self-reported job search contacts of unemployment insurance recipients with independently verified job-search contacts. The separate equations estimated for reported and actual job contacts suggest that systematic misreporting may distort the conclusions. Some implications of the findings for reported unemployment rates also are explored.…

Observation is important in evaluation, but artifact collection should also be used as a supplement to observation. This article includes a framework for analysis of content, design, and presentation of such material in teacher evaluation. (MD)