Educational researchers examining school boards and school governance have commited some conceptual errors in the past. For example, to judge school boards according to traditional political concepts of responsiveness and representativeness is to ignore the insular nature of most boards of education, as well as to fail to take into account the at…

This paper presents two models, one for organizing institutional research and research data, and the other for applying research findings to the decision-making process. The model for organizing research consists of four subsystems: goal-setting, program development, cost-effectiveness, and program review. Each subsystem has a distinctive…

The actual impact of research and demonstration projects in vocational education is evaluated. Criteria for a reliable research design are specified regarding sample size, sample selection, control groups, and economic and educational benefit and cost evaluation. The impact of research and demonstration projects is analyzed in the areas of…

This study investigates the level of agreement among four groups--students, parents, teachers, and administrators--in reference to a particular set of school objectives: the teaching of social studies in secondary schools. Twelve objectives for social studies teaching were given to the four groups for rank ordering on a five-point scale of…

The function of research is to perfect the tools of education and to manufacture new ones. Research opens up perspectives and informs teachers. The whole of the education system and all its components should be investigated if research is to be comprehensive and successful. Highly qualified teams of researchers are essential, bringing a variety of…

Evaluation takes place in a social context that influences research design, selection of variables, the written report, and the timing of its release. There are also consequences for program implementors and evaluators. Historical accounts of the school systems in Gary, Indiana and New York, New York illustrate these influences. (Author/CTM)

Notes that the most common educational research methods (large-scale surveys and field observations) have failed to examine the processes by which school participants create school structures. Advocates constitutive ethnography as a new approach and presents examples of its application in examining classrooms, lessons, educational testing, and…

Type/Token Ratios (TTRs) frequently fail to discriminate between children at widely different stages of language development, and may fall as children get older. Such effects are caused by a negative, though non-linear, relationship between sample size and TTR. Standardization of the number of tokens before computing TTRs is recommended.…

Addresses the implicit assumption that instructional media represent meaningful experimental variables independent of instructional content or strategy. Results of computer-based instruction (CBI) studies (both well-designed and flawed) and meta-analyses are reviewed to support the authors' position that this assumption is invalid, and new…

Critiques comparative research and evaluation methods used to assess effectiveness of interactive video and proposes alternative models of research design that go beyond comparative analysis into understanding and control of the effective dimensions of interactive video, i.e., controlled correlation; instructional events, cognitive psychology, and…

Examines and assesses Marxist debates over schooling and societal reproduction. Argues that, if Marxists insist on using functional analysis to explain schools in capitalist society, the accuracy of these explanations must be empirically assessed. (FMW)

Describes a researcher's subjective experience of fieldwork conducted among other women graduate students. Focuses on interactions between the researcher and her informants, and discusses how these interactions affected the research, the findings, and the researcher. The emotional stresses and ethical dilemmas encountered by a feminist researcher…

This critique of H. Lee Swanson's "Toward a Metatheory of Learning Disabilities" comments on Swanson's concept of learning disabilities, cognitive science, and information processing theory. A different research and theory-building agenda is proposed, focusing on society's definition of learning disabilities and instructional issues and…

Methodological tools such as analysis of variance designs can reflect bias. Difficulties in the interpretation of cross-cultural differences can be avoided only if the researcher considers all external variables which account for the variance. No variance should be left to be explained in terms of culture. (VM)

Describes a study done by Herbert White that resulted in rankings of library and information science programs based on perceptual assessments by faculty and library directors. Problems with this methodology are discussed, and further findings based on extensive interviews with subjects of the White study are reported. (CLB)