This guide describes a systematic way of identifying the resources and needs of community residents by gathering data, soliciting the perspectives of residents and leaders, and surveying service providers and other community resources. Part 1 of the guide differentiates community assessment from traditional needs assessments and details the 5-step…

The nine-volume Survey Kit is designed to help readers prepare and conduct surveys and become better users of survey results. All the books in the series contain instructional objectives, exercises and answers, examples of surveys in use, illustrations of survey questions, guidelines for action, checklists of "dos and don'ts," and…

Education depends on resources that may be tangible (teachers, facilities, textbooks, money) or intangible (political will, parental support). Considerations of space, usually in the form of questions containing the word "where", constitute another resource issue that confronts educational managers almost daily. Questions like…

One of the consequences of Ohio's educational accountability efforts mandated under Ohio Senate Bill 55 (SB 55) and the traditional testing programs of Ohio school districts is the generation of huge amounts of data. In order for school-based educators to organize and explore these voluminous amounts of information, they need exposure to…

This document examined studies of the overjustification effect. Many studies examining the phenomenon were conducted during the 1970s; findings appeared to be accepted without qualification. It is unclear whether researchers conducted the studies with the proper methodologies and interpreted results correctly. Such factors included the type of…

This document is a summary and evaluation of the methodological procedures and results of the full-scale implementation of the Beginning Postsecondary Student Longitudinal Study, 1990-92 (BPS). The BPS starts with a cohort of students beginning postsecondary education regardless of when they completed high school. As a result, information will be…

For this kit, 119 Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member libraries were surveyed to ascertain the extent of employee award programs. The survey focused on identifying how many member libraries have an employee award program and also gathered information on the nature of these programs. Questions were designed to identify what is rewarded,…

The history of the study of human mental ability is an example of the dialectic in social science between those who interpret data within the framework of existing social inequities and those who look for perspectives that might eventually dissolve inequities. The dedication of Henry Herbert Goddard to a belief in the scientific proof of…

Precipitation data for Macomb (Illinois) for the period 1912-1981 were the bases for developing classroom exercises that offered college students experience in collecting such data. After students collected the data, they reduced them to manageable proportions, and then examined average long-term relations which may have emerged among yearly,…

This study examines the application of the marginal maximum likelihood (MML) EM algorithm to the parameter estimation problem of the three-parameter normal ogive and logistic polychotomous item response models. A three-parameter normal ogive model, the Graded Response model, has been developed on the basis of Samejima's two-parameter graded…

Ways a microcomputer can be used to establish and maintain an evaluation database and types of data management features possible on a microcomputer are described in this report, which contains step-by-step procedures and numerous examples for establishing a database, manipulating data, and designing and printing reports. Following a brief…

In this activity students compile data from 50 countries on computer cards in order to make general statements about factors that contribute to modernization. (DE)

Short classroom activities designed to show how technological advances in transportation have increased world interdependence are provided. (DE)

Charts and activities designed to compare world military and public expenditures are provided. (DE)

Data and activities examining the sources and uses of energy are included. (DE)