Describes a process for reviewing and improving data collection quality. The methodology includes a thorough business practice review, an analysis of existing data quality, cleansing of existing data, and implementation of business practice changes aimed at improving the quality of data captured by each institution. (EV)

Compared face-to-face interviews with self-administered questionnaires as methods of data collection in a study of smoking attitudes and behavior conducted with 601 young Latina and African American women. Results show neither mode to provide superior results and indicate that cost effectiveness and convenience may be greater for the…

The authors reviewed the application of consensual qualitative research (CQR) in 27 studies published since the method's introduction to the field in 1997 by C. E. Hill, B. J. Thompson, and E. N. Williams (1997). After first describing the core components and the philosophical underpinnings of CQR, the authors examined how it has been applied in…

Eureka is similar to the Big6(super TM) research skills by Michael Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz, as both methods simplify the complex process of critical information gathering into six user-friendly steps. The six research steps to Eureka are presented.

Preparing one's team for success on the basketball court involves a combination of strategies. One of the most effective but often overlooked strategies is a scouting report. A complete and thorough scouting report will have information about an opponent that helps prepare oneself and the team players for competition. Several areas need to be…

This article describes how job analysis, a method commonly used in personnel research and organizational psychology, provides a systematic method for documenting program staffing and service delivery that can improve evaluators' knowledge about program operations. Job analysis data can be used to increase evaluators' insight into how staffs…

The Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) is one of a few national surveys that regularly collects data identifying the American population of persons with hearing loss or deafness. Estimates from the SIPP indicate that fewer than 1 in 20 Americans are currently deaf or hard of hearing. In round numbers, nearly 10,000,000 persons are…

Efforts to gather data of various sorts--demographics, language-learning history, contact with native speakers, use of the language in the field--as they relate to participants in SLA research studies are inherent to understanding more about language acquisition and use. Scholars frequently develop questionnaires of their own, which are rarely…

Thirty-six participants performed bilateral and unilateral isometric elbow flexion trials at what they perceived to be 100, 75, 50, and 25% of maximal effort. Absolute bilateral deficits ranged from -16% at 25% effort to -10% at 100% effort. The deficit included a component independent of consciousness and a component inversely related to…

Many researchers have been inquiring into focus groups as a qualitative data collection method (Barbour & Kitzinger 1999; Krueger 1998; Morgan, 1998), but only a few have been able to analyze the different levels of understanding in focus groups, which we focus on in this article. The guiding research question is how do focus groups offer deeper…

In this article, part of the "Exemplar" series in "Advances in Health Sciences Education," we profile the career of Christine McGuire, and capture her perspectives on the status of medical education practice and research. Her career was prototypical of other exemplars in the series--a pathway characterized by serendipity. As an exemplar, her…

Regardless of the related discipline, students in statistics courses invariably have difficulty understanding the connection between the numerical values calculated for end-of-the-chapter exercises and their usefulness in decision making. This disconnect is, in part, due to the lack of time and opportunity to actually design the experiments and…

The purpose of this large-scale, national study is to determine whether some early elementary school math curricula are more effective than others at improving student math achievement, thereby providing educators with information that may be useful for making adequate yearly progress (AYP). This report presents results from the first cohort of…

This Technical Report includes detailed information on the reasons for the strategies presented in the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) "Guidance for School (K-12) Responses to Influenza During the 2009-2010 School Year" and suggestions on how to use them. The guidance is designed to decrease exposure to regular seasonal flu and 2009 H1N1 flu…

The purpose of this large-scale, national study is to determine whether some early elementary school math curricula are more effective than others at improving student math achievement, thereby providing educators with information that may be useful for making adequate yearly progress (AYP). This report presents results from the first cohort of…