Current writings on death and dying are trichotomized into prescientific, quasi-scientific, and scientific. Research findings should not be treated as equally valid; some methods may be used to supply hypotheses, others to test them, and still others to further validate the previous findings. (Author)

Rural girls, answering questions concerning educational and occupational aspirations, showed significantly higher educational aspiration, the same or higher occupational aspiration, and equal ranges of job choice, relative to boys. The results are discussed with respect to previous findings, and to status attainment models. (Author)

Reviews research on educational administration within the context of methodologies in several social and behavioral sciences. Specifically discusses the state of the art in policy and organizational studies. (EF)

Reviews trends in the literature on Native American women and notes significant changes in recent years. Suggests that scholarly issues may have to be subordinated to community needs, and that feminist scholars should direct their studies to those issues most important to the group being studied. (ST)

Presents how and why programs embodying family policy in Western Europe and the United States differ. By indicating current changes in these programs and how political decisions affect them, fruitful areas for family policy research are suggested. Family policy meeting needs of pragmatically defined parent-child units will be most successful.…

Describes a method of evaluation which ensures maximum yield. Mentions common pitfalls in evaluation procedures and proposes Reality-Based Evaluation (RBE) as a safeguard against them. Outlines RBE and concludes that evaluation results must play an active role in bringing about change. (JG)

The clinical inquiry approach to classroom research is seen as a desirable alternative to traditional educational research methods. (LH)

The position is taken that the effectiveness of bilingual education programs has not been adequately researched or evaluated. The lack of appropriate critical, empirical, or longitudinal studies is attributed to several factors. (MH)

Evaluations involving nonrandom assignment to treatment or control groups are vulnerable to an accidental or intentional confounding of a selection effect with the treatment effect. Two techniques, discriminant analysis and base expectancy analysis, permit separate estimation of the selection and treatment effects in the final results. (Author/CTM)

Questions the extent to which citizen participation at the local level is purposive (as opposed to supportive). Participation in activities related to local schools is used as an example of a type of activity which is generally supportive. Relevant participation literature is reviewed. (Author/DB)

The conclusion that learning disabled children have a deficit in perceptual organization is not accepted because of two major methodological problems. Dean refutes this criticism showing that learning disabled children have a perceptual organization deficit when compared with emotionally disturbed children. (Author/BEF)

Providing more information about experimental studies than required under the ethical principles formulated by the American Psychological Association can result in data bias on a specific task; overall, however, the implementation of ethical principles has little effect on data collected in classroom settings. (RL)

This critique points out problems in the methodology used by Robinson and Bell in their analysis of societal differences between the United States and England and makes suggestions about future investigations. (EB)

In view of the fact that present studies of teacher effectiveness are incongruent and ineffective, a new approach--cognitive information processing--is evolving. The author contends that this new approach will lead to changes in topics of research, methods of research, and nature of the results. (JKS)

Notes problems in measuring attitudes about reading, critically examines some existing measures, and discusses the relevancy of such measures for classroom use. (GT)