Problems associated with the use of the Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS) data to make institutional comparisons are discussed. It is noted that information collected by HEGIS includes data on enrollment, degrees, finances, employees, libraries, and physical facilities. Attention is directed to the following problems with the…

Collecting time-on-task data is necessary in order to research methods for increasing student time-on-task and to provide feedback to teachers on what teaching behaviors produce high levels of on-task behaviors in students. A student and a teacher behavior data collection instrument developed for research in the area of academic learning time is…

The Quality Circle project is a problem-solving concept requiring the interaction of a variety of organizational skills. Circle members work together, becoming involved in problem-solving processes. They make decisions and take action based upon the data they collect. The reliablity of those data is crucial to the circle's success. Presented in…

The manual presents 12 papers summarizing research on the effectiveness of the Kansas Individualized Curriculum Sequencing (KICS) model for severely handicapped students. The first three papers examine the effects of distributed practice schedules on the learning, generalization and initiation of students. The use of distributed practice, an…

This report focuses on a discussion of findings from analyses of computer transaction logs contributed by four of the online catalog systems used in the Public Access Project. It supplements the analyses of User and Non-User Questionnaires by providing analyses of data from the systems themselves. The four systems contributing data to this…

The structure and documentation of High School and Beyond First Follow-Up data files represent a departure from Base Year practices. The Base Year student file contains data from both the senior and sophomore cohorts. Due to the more complex design of the First Follow-Up and resulting increase in the volume of available data, separate First…

The purpose of this case study was to provide the Portland Public Schools' Research and Evaluation Department with information to guide the development of improved data collection, reporting, and information delivery systems in order to target these systems to more effectively meet the decision-making needs of teachers, principals, parents and…

The development of a national database describing the real undergraduate curriculum, the courses that college and university students actually take, is reported. Based on analyses of student transcripts from 30 public and private institutions of varying sizes, this report provides a rationale for the database; analyzes student choices across the…

Part of a volume which explores current issues in service delivery to infants and toddlers (ages birth to 3) with handicapping conditions, this chapter presents program evaluation as a comprehensive process comprising three phases: input, process, and output. Three program evaluation models are summarized: Tyler's objective model, Scriven's…

The desire to abolish the gap between research theory and classroom practice has sparked an increasing interest in field-based research among science educators. Although most researchers are aware of the standard meanings of informed consent and confidentiality, and there are some codes of ethical principles published by such groups as the…

The purpose of this report is to develop a strategy for improving both national and state forecasts of future attrition rates. A theory of teacher attrition is developed that attempts to account for the disparate reasons for attrition, and to explain the patterns of attrition unique to each life cycle and career stage. Existing literature on…

This inquiry was conducted to examine influences on perceptions of survey subjects regarding ideographic characteristics of the subjects, incentives to enhance mail returns, and multiple requests for information. A mail survey sent to 297 former education students from a large university produced responses from 48.3% of the sample. The ideographic…

This manual describes the model--specifically the observation procedures and coding systems--used in a longitudinal study of how children learn to comprehend what they read, with particular emphasis on science texts. Included are procedures for the following: identifying students; observing--recording observations and diagraming the room; writing…

Summative evaluation is the final stage of the evaluation framework developed by the Center for the Study of Evaluation. Evaluation is a decision-oriented activity. The four-stage evaluation framework consists of needs assessment, program planning, formative and summative evaluation. The handbook presents exercises in summative evaluation. The…

Guidelines are presented for implementing the self-evaluation model for instructional programs developed at American River College (ARC). After stating the reasons for conducting program reviews, the paper describes ARC's model, which uses a mini-accreditation approach to assess the extent of goal attainment within a broad category of activities…