To explore faculty needs for expanded visual instructional materials and to help provide for those needs, the Educational Technologies Division at Virginia Tech, in cooperation with the College of Engineering, is in the process of developing a multipurpose multimedia engineering visual database. The database is designed to assist faculty members…

In 1991, a national survey was conducted of institutional research directors at 150 two- and four-year colleges to investigate practitioner perceptions of institutional research effectiveness and productivity. Randomly selected directors of institutional research were mailed a one-page questionnaire, requesting information about institution size…

This social history of the post-World War II Puerto Rican community in the United States focuses mainly on New York City. Each of the following chapters can be read separately: (1) "The Colonial Relationship: Migration and History" examines the factors leading to the migration of Puerto Ricans to the United States and their choice of…

Volume 2, the second of eight publications developed by the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) as part of the "Texas School Dropout Survey Project," focuses on the issue of the computation of a dropout rate. Three important factors which influence the mathematical computation of a dropout rate are identified: time…

The second of four symposium papers brings together the results of four separate statistical analyses of findings on computer-based instruction (CBI) in 199 comparative studies, of which 32 were conducted in elementary schools, 42 in high schools, 101 in universities and colleges, and 24 in adult education settings. Each was a controlled,…

This paper traces the process of designing and administering a structured survey on dropping out of school to demonstrate the means by which working with organizations and their clients impacts research methodology. A dropout accounting system had been developed for the Ysleta Independent School District, a district with an enrollment of 50,000…

The 'rural' definitions applied by the Federal Government, especially by two data-gathering agencies, the Bureau of the Census and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), emphasize different dimensions of the concept, and delineate the rural-urban continuum in different ways. This report discusses the inconsistency of curent "rural"…

A review of recent literature and commission reports identifies persistent problems in two areas of educational administration: research and preparation programs. The two problems are linked in that they are often supervised by faculty who direct but do not themselves perform research. Two areas of research needs are the poor research skills of…

Two doctoral dissertations (one a case study and the other, quantitative research) which examine the experience of secondary school international exchange students are reviewed. The first, "Case Study of a Latin American Sojourner: Crossing Hard Times," by Nancy B. King (Wayne State University, 1981) documents the difficult relationship…

Newman (1984) examined the causal relations between math self-concept and math achievement in an 8-year longitudinal study using Linear Structural Relations (LISREL) analyses. He concluded that math self-concept did not influence subsequent math achievement. However, the study suffered in that math self-concept was inferred from a single-item…

This study evaluates the effects of the Advanced Placement (AP) Program in the lives of students and investigates the validity of the Advanced Placement Examinations at participating colleges and universities. Nine of the colleges and universities that received the most AP candidates in 1982 were selected for the study. The transcripts of a large…

This report is a record of a one-day seminar sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The theme of the conference was the timely issue of the role of nonpublic schools in educating American children. The participants were: (1) representatives of private schools, (2) federal policymakers; and (3) researchers. Jay Noell…

Over 150 papers and articles were examined, and interviews with noted computer-based instruction (CBI) professionals were conducted to obtain information about CBI and the research evidence. Focus was on four main areas of CBI research--costs, learning achievements, individual differences, and student attitudes. Consistent empirical evidence did…

Considered are the developmental and prognostic implications of early peer relations. Evidence concerning peer difficulties as risk factors is reviewed along with research dealing with family relations and peer relations in social development. In preference to a stepping-stone model of the development of social deviance, a conjunctive feedback…

To correct for the effects of measurement error on structural parameter estimates, many researchers are now estimating models of educational achievement with LISREL. In order to estimate such models it is desirable to obtain multiple manifest measures of the latent constructs. Many researchers restrict their models to two manifest measures per…