The preparation and use of data needed to make objective, useful comparisons in higher education are considered. The needs for comparative data in higher education, including demands for accountability and strategic planning, are reviewed. In addition, data-related problems are considered: problems of narrowness, misrepresentation, sameness,…

Coleman, Hoffer and Kilgore's claims regarding the effects of Catholic schools on cognitive achievement have evoked much controversy. Critics have argued that the cross-sectional testing data Coleman et al. used could not distinguish differential sector effectiveness from selection effects, i.e., that Catholic schools enroll students of superior…

Two methodologies for teacher-focused process evaluation--rating scales and systematic observation--are discussed and comments are made about their characteristics and effective utilization to improve teachers' performance. Process evaluation, referring specifically to the act of evaluating what teachers do in their classrooms, may be of formative…

The purpose of this research study was to assess item response model-test data fit using residuals. First, a comparison of raw and standardized residuals for describing model-test data fit was carried out. Second, hypotheses concerning the relationship between residual sizes and several item characteristics were studied. The analyses with…

The major finding of the Law-Related Education Evaluation Project report for Year 1 (1981), that law-related education courses can reduce juvenile delinquency, is of limited use to educational decision makers and could be misleading. The research design leaves much to be desired; however, that fact must be considered in light of the difficulty of…

Empirical validation of the Self-Identity Development Model of Oppressed People (SIDMOP) prompted the choice of a multi-methodological approach that would test the underlying theory and not the participants' ability to perform a matching task. Few identity developmental models of oppressed people have been systematically developed, and even fewer…

This booklet describes selected and diverse ideas and recommendations that were presented at a conference. Scholars from the disciplines of history, philosophy, sociology, psychology, literature, and education examined a number of practices and problems that are central to the provision of moral education and the development of good character.…

Teachers can and should use the insights of ethnographic research responsibly in their teaching. Ethnography is an attempt to understand cultures or parts of cultures from the point of view of those who participate in them. It is in the discontinuity between home and school uses of literacy that most ethnographers who study literacy locate the…

The status of recent research on staff development and inservice education for teachers, administrators, and other school personnel was reviewed in studies completed between 1977 and 1984. More than 400 articles from 23 professional journals and 507 doctoral dissertations were analyzed. For each study, the research design and procedures, purposes…

A study was conducted to test a model of relational competence that consisted of three components: motivation, knowledge, and skill in interaction for both participants in a conversation. The model is based on the assumption that the additive combination of these components for both participants will be significantly predictive of several…

The literature of the effective schools movement argues for three very different images of what constitutes leadership, which are regarded in this paper as confused images of leadership. The first image is of a supremely pragmatic but rational actor, the second is of a leader who adheres to the norms typical of the local community culture, and the…

Educational reform commissions and state departments of education across the United States have recommended that would-be administrators spend more time in planned field experiences, internships, and other practica and on-the-job learning activities. Despite this need, systematic research on experiential learning for administrators is remarkably…

Two analytic models, each with different implications for data analysis, have been used in behavioral science research for assessing attitudinal congruency. The term relative congruence applies to the family of agreement indices which, although functions of the absolute index, are formulated relative to chance expectations. The term absolute…

This review considers two major areas--research on educational media and research on school media centers (learning resource centers). Research reviewed in this report is limited to studies carried out in public school settings or that deal with issues of concern in public education. An introduction discusses the changing definition of…

Evaluation, as currently practiced in vocational education, may not contribute to program improvement; in fact, it may be counterproductive. Rather than asking how evaluations can be improved, it might be better to ask if a relationship does, in fact, exist between evaluation and program improvement and, if such a relationship exists, what new…