The article provides an overview of research needs in vocational education; lists some problem areas; discusses research methods and statistical treatment of data; and touches upon sponsorship, dissemination, and future research challenges. (MW)

The territorial imperative ought not to threaten the well-being of a species. For faculty and student affairs, symbiotic relationships must be sought through a redefinition of territories, and through recognition that territories are not mutually exclusive. For student affairs, one route to new ground is through research. (Author/PC)

The problem with various versions of Writing across the Curriculum (WAC) that have emerged since the turn of the century is that they are not self sustaining--they seemed unable to overcome the destructive forces of departmentalization and the entrenched attitudes in the university both toward writing and toward interdepartmental programs. If WAC…

The concept of adult children of alcoholics (ACoA) has received wide public recognition and acceptance. An ACoA is defined as any adult who, as a child, was reared by one or two alcoholic parents. To date research has not sufficiently addressed the many questions generated by the grass roots movement, such as whether or not adult children of…

Latinos need the protection of the proposed Fair Housing Amendments of 1987 and the active support of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to overcome housing discrimination. Latinos are both disproportionately poor and inadequately housed, but low income alone cannot fully explain the poor housing conditions under which many…

This paper reviews alcohol awareness and alcoholism prevention efforts on college campuses since the mid-1970s. The concept of responsible drinking which is an accepted part of these college prevention programs is discussed. It is noted that while the responsible drinking concept has been recently called into question, there never was any…

The paper proposes that research efforts should be focused on understanding the non-linguistic functioning of individuals with severe degrees of mental retardation, recognizing its place as a potential stand-alone system in satisfying communicative needs and options, and understanding the mechanisms that account for the presence and use of such a…

One popular trend in the American school reform movement is the notion of school and teacher empowerment. This paper sketches various definitions of teacher empowerment and associated terms, presents key issues, identifies certain strengths and weaknesses, encapsulates recent evaluation and research efforts, and lists traditional and newer…

This paper presents the author's responses to nine questions addressed to the standard-setting symposium participants. A central theme in this assessment is that one cannot clearly demonstrate, a priori, that either a normative or a content-referenced approach is superior. Most methods used to date have been insufficiently grounded in…

Broad literacy trends among elementary, high school, and college students can be determined from various reports from the National Assessment of Education Progress, standardized achievement scores, and the verbal scores on the SAT. When these scores are analyzed for the decade of the 1970s, one finds different trends for different age groups, with…

The paper focuses on reading-disabled students with emphasis on the need for theory-driven research and improvements in the training of teachers in reading instruction. Among abilities that should be tested in research on causes of reading disability are the child's understanding of the phonological structure of written language, a specifically…

Developmental psychopathology can be viewed as a macroparadigm within which to integrate theoretical and empirical contributions stemming from other paradigms such as biomedical, behavioral, psychodynamic, cognitive, sociological, and family systems. By highlighting the interconnections among these different approaches and providing an overarching…

The need for an increased use of statistical data and quantitative analysis in many areas of science policy is emphasized in this report of the hearing on science evaluation methods used in Great Britain. The testimony given by Professor Benjamin Martin of the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex in England explains how…

Drawing from political science, sociology, and communication literature, this paper provides a review of research dealing with political candidate image to show the various ways this concept has been treated by scholars. The paper begins with an examination of the rationales offered by researchers for the study of image, then addresses the…

The American Enterprise Institute and the National Institute of Education commissioned six authors to prepare papers examining the barriers and incentives to private-sector involvement in public schools. These authors include representatives from two corporations, a former school superintendent and academic, a state policy analyst and attorney,…