Public school districts vary widely in the extent to which they are aware of, receive, and use research and development (R&D) resources produced by four major programs within the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI). A 95 percent response rate to a survey sent to a probability sample of 1,093…

A procedure was developed to detect differential item functioning (DIF) in a standardized essay test using the Partial Credit Model, the general polychotomous form of the Rasch model. Using a panel of experts in the writing process, hypothesized explanations for DIF at some score points were developed. Data for the study included averaged…

Comparing regional and subregional division characteristics of public elementary and secondary education in the United States, this report presents selected key statistics for each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and 5 outlying areas. This report is based on responses to the "Public Elementary and Secondary School Universe" and the…

This report presents data from the March 1988 Current Population Survey on the demographic, social, and economic characteristics of the Hispanic population of the United States, including age, sex, marital status, educational attainment, school enrollment, fertility, voting and registration, employment status, family composition and size, income,…

Recent research has demonstrated the promise of graphing software as an aid to teaching graphs in two content areas: line graphs of aspects of motion and graphs of algebraic functions. This study attempted to generalize the idea of computer-assisted graphing to include the use of several kinds of graphs to solve a wider range of problems. A unit…

This report evaluates the reading and mathematics lab programs for elementary and secondary students in the Des Moines (Iowa) Independent Community School District. The reading program served 510 students in 13 schools and mathematics program served 240 students in 7 schools. A variety of assessment instruments were used to pinpoint students'…

A program sought to enhance the educational achievement and employability of 167 Hispanic students of limited English proficiency in grades 9-12 through elective courses in keyboarding, computer literacy, word processing, and automated accounting. The instructional approach was based on students' English proficiency. Students with the least…

A computerized management system to improve efficiency was implemented for one year in a fifth grade classroom in a large metropolitan city in the southwest. A variety of computer application software packages were reviewed and selections were made for use in grading and prescriptive analysis. The teacher also developed a database of student…

Education has been recognized as the cornerstone of economic and social development. Now it is even more important as technological change and new methods of production transform the world economy. Development will depend more and more on knowledge-intensive industries, agriculture, and services. The continuing economic crisis, however, is…

Integrating comments from the literature about CD-ROMs, online searching, and information retrieval, this report describes the initial experience of using InfoTrac at Winona State University (WSU). After finding that students did not tend to order fee-based online searches, the WSU library provided access on a trial basis to bibliographic…

This sequence of courses is designed to teach students how to use computers as a business and personal tool through the use of application software. Various jobs in computer-related fields are examined and employability skills, proper work habits, and leadership skills are taught. The major part of the guide consists of 18 units of instruction:…

Each year, the 28 Florida community colleges are required to produce Enrollment and Completion Headcount Reports (AA-1 series reports). The purpose of these reports is to provide an accurate accounting of program enrollments and completions, and enrollment figures of students receiving other instructional services at Santa Fe Community College…

The National Child Care Staffing Study (NCCSS) was designed to explore how child care teaching staff and their working conditions affect the caliber of center-based child care. Four major policy questions were addressed: (1) Who teaches in America's child care centers? (2) What do they contribute to the quality of care provided? (3) Do centers…

To attempt to incorporate the perceptions of consumers of alcohol education programs about topic relevance and importance, a modified version of a methodology that extracts, evaluates, and combines information from novices and experts to determine commonly held scripts and schema was used. In the first of two studies, 37 students at Texas…

As part of an overall regional needs assessment, an overview is provided of testing programs in the mid-Atlantic region, consisting of: the District of Columbia; Delaware; Maryland; New Jersey; and Pennsylvania. The testing programs vary widely by objective and approach. One of the major needs assessment activities is the examination of student…