This preliminary planning study undertakes to develop a detailed picture of what the National Institute of Education might become. It addresses five major categories of questions concerning the proposed Institute: (1) its objectives, (2) program, (3) organization, (4) relationship with the educational system, and (5) initial activities. This…

Experimental design has only limited utility inthe field of educational evaluation and, in general, the methodology of the former does not equal the methodology of the latter; in fact, experimental design plays a limited role in the total framework of educational evaluation. Experimental design does have potential utility in the areas of input and…

The APPROACH (A Procedure for Patterning Responses of Adults and Children) technique was used to code observations of behavior and setting in this ecological study of adult-child cognitive communication patterns. The subjects observed were 32 children who proportionately represented each of four age groups (1 year, 2 years, 3 years, and 4 years)…

This paper asks whether all the current attention being given to educational evaluation and all the activity going on indicates real progress in the output of evaluation and its use in the policy process. The paper reviews the brief history of educational evaluation and gives a qualified "yes" as an answer to the question, noting: significant…

After an extensive study of the effective use of resources in colleges and universities the author offers some suggestions that envision radical rearrangements of higher education. Among his ideas are the following: (1) entrance requirements should be eliminated; (2) colleges and universities should be open to everyone the first year, and all…

This packet contains (1) informational booklets for parents in the Alum Rock Union Elementary School District, (2) a booklet on the pros and cons of a voucher system, (3) promotional material, (4) a progress report on the project, (5) the project proposal to OEO, and (6) a sample school and program preferences form. The program, according to the…

This report describes briefly the experimental design and presents the basic contract provisions. The experiment results reveal that performance contracting is no more successful than traditional classroom methods in improving the reading and mathematics skills of poor children. Both control and experimental groups performed equally poorly in…

This speech discusses performance contracting as educational research, notes some evaluation problems, and proposes solutions to these problems. The term performance contracting, according to the report, denotes an administrative rather than an instructional innovation. The author observes that the understanding of instruction and learning derived…

Designed to assess the effects of self-grading on undergraduate learning and evaluation in a one semester constitutional law course, this study indicated that self-grading had no significant impact on learning but that it did encourage self-graders to evaluate themselves significantly higher than instructor graded students. (Author/DB)

A simple experiment: adults allowed to study in sixth forms. The article examines the results of the last two years. (Editor/RK)

The effects of three types of laboratory instruction on transfer of learning from a single-cylinder agricultural engine to a multicylinder agricultural engine in the area of carburetion were studied. There were no significant differences among treatment groups on mean quality scores. Instruction method did affect task completion time. (JH)

Describes the "Packaging Useful to Schools Campaign," a one year experiment in providing free instructional materials to primary schools in Portugal. Materials such as maps, clock faces, detachable letters, rulers, protractors, and compass cards were printed by manufacturers on their packaging materials and were later recycled to…

The authors maintain that an interdisciplinary approach to health and science education can encourage dialogue between citizens, government, and the scientific community. They describe the Elementary Science Study (ESS) curriculum, which integrates health and science education through classroom experimentation. (Author/DS)

The relative effectiveness of two methods of instruction, orally-presented lessons and a written version of those lessons, was investigated using a post-test, an attitude scale, and time taken for instruction as criteria. (Author/RK)

The locus of control of subjects may be the confounding variable affecting the acceptance of motivational cues in intentional-incidental (INT-INC) learning studies, and thus the reason for conflicting results in "funneling effect" (leaning toward intentional learning as a function of motivation) experiments. 96 female college students selected for…