This chapter discusses the continued need for--and civil rights implications of--research on community colleges and Latino educational opportunity.

Recent legislation has produced a dramatic rise in the detention and removal of immigrants from the United States. Drawing on interviews with a random sample of Salvadoran deportees, we examine treatment during arrest and detention. Our findings indicate: (1) deportees are often subject to verbal harassment, procedural failings and use of force;…

This qualitative study examined how participation in an extensive all-female wilderness program challenged conventional notions of femininity for adolescent girls. Interviews were conducted 4 to 5 months and 15 to 18 months after completion of a 23-day canoe expedition. Additional data collection included a focus group, a public presentation,…

Brief measures of the five-factor model (FFM) have been developed but none include an assessment of facets within each domain. The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of a simple, one-page, facet-level description of the FFM. Five data collections were completed to assess the reliability and the convergent and discriminant validity…

An annual-case process that examines principal leadership over the course of a year can provide extensive opportunities for practitioners and professors to collect, examine, and disseminate knowledge in, of, and about practice. Such cases can support professional development and pre-service preparation and become bases for research across multiple…

Practical inquiry combines the formal research techniques of formulating questions and conducting literature reviews with site-based data collection and use of findings to improve practice. The object of practical inquiry is to explain a situation. The ultimate goal is to learn how to improve or change the work. Merging research and assessment…

Data residing in institutional and system-level record systems are often under-exploited as a resource for decision-making. Whilst the data might neither have the characteristics, nor meet the quality demanded, of formal research projects, their relative availability offers advantages to the policy-maker and practitioner. This article illustrates…

To explore factors associated with college students' intentions to participate in Internet-based health research, data were collected from 502 undergraduate students enrolled in introductory-level business courses at a large midwestern university. Findings suggest that intentions to participate in Internet-based research are influenced by one's…

Many school districts are putting data to good use, although much of the data used in administrative decision making ultimately derives from standardized test scores, which raises a host of other related concerns. The author's purpose in this article is not to critique the types or sources of data that administrators use, but to suggest that there…

Long considered four-letter words by many in education, "data," "testing," and "assessments" have come to signify more than additional burdens and distractions from instruction for most educators. Although many educators are still wary of data, many top-performing school systems have embraced data as a means to drive educational decision making…

This article sketches a research agenda for the further study of community college student transitions. Specific techniques are depicted as are potential data sources that can be used to pursue that agenda. The role of student tracking systems in transition research is discussed as well as the applicability of national surveys to the study of…

The author explores current efforts by educators and policy makers to harness the power of educational technology for both assessment "of learning" and assessment "for learning" in K-12 classrooms. (Contains 1 figure.)

After September 11, 2001, the Bush administration initiated large-scale electronic surveillance within the United States to gather intelligence to protect citizens from terrorists. Media commentary, public reaction, and classroom practices regarding this program have tended toward either-or positions: either for presidential power and national…

Objective: It is widely presumed that when children are hit by peers or siblings, it is not as serious as similar acts between adults or older youth, which would be termed, "assaults" and "violent crimes". The goal of this study was to compare the violent peer and sibling episodes of younger children to those of older youth in terms of their…

Triangulation involves the careful reviewing of data collected through different methods in order to achieve a more accurate and valid estimate of qualitative results for a particular construct. This paper describes how we used three qualitative methods of data collection to study attitudes of students toward graphing, hands-on activities, and…