Participation in dinner table conversations offers children opportunities to acquire vocabulary, practice producing and understanding stories and explanations, acquire general knowledge, and learn how to talk in culturally appropriate ways. (Contains 1 table.)

This chapter discusses the continued need for--and civil rights implications of--research on community colleges and Latino educational opportunity.

In March 2003, a total of 394 media specialists throughout the state of Kentucky completed an online survey regarding the professional development needs. The public relations subcommittee of the Kentucky School Media Association Board of directors generated the questions and collected data from the three parts of the survey-demographics,…

In this article, Mary Kellett, of the Children's Research Centre at the Open University, draws on case study evidence to illustrate how an 11-year-old girl's quality of life was transformed in the last few months before she died when an Intensive Interaction intervention approach was adopted. The study raises issues about the way we respond to…

Recent legislation has produced a dramatic rise in the detention and removal of immigrants from the United States. Drawing on interviews with a random sample of Salvadoran deportees, we examine treatment during arrest and detention. Our findings indicate: (1) deportees are often subject to verbal harassment, procedural failings and use of force;…

This qualitative study examined how participation in an extensive all-female wilderness program challenged conventional notions of femininity for adolescent girls. Interviews were conducted 4 to 5 months and 15 to 18 months after completion of a 23-day canoe expedition. Additional data collection included a focus group, a public presentation,…

This paper is a report of the development of a systematic process for locating instructional design alumni and recruiting them to provide feedback from their workplaces. The purpose of initiating this process is related to program improvement through alumni participation. The process for tracking, contacting, and gathering data from alumni is…

As the principles and practices of quality assurance are further implanted in higher education, methodological questions about how to understand and manage quality become increasingly important. This paper argues that quality assurance determinations need to take account of how and to what extent students engage with activities that are likely to…

Many nations' governments are requiring schools to bring about significant, systematic, and sustained change to improve student outcomes in all settings, and have imposed mandates to ensure that schools are providing quality education and running efficiently and effectively. Consequently, national and state testing programs, standards-based…

We developed a novel variation on classroom data collection by having students conduct a national research project. Students at 20 different colleges and universities measured "school spirit" at their institutions according to several operational criteria (school apparel wearing, car stickers, alumni donation rate, ratings by a major sports…

Brief measures of the five-factor model (FFM) have been developed but none include an assessment of facets within each domain. The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of a simple, one-page, facet-level description of the FFM. Five data collections were completed to assess the reliability and the convergent and discriminant validity…

This article reports on students' decision making processes and sources of knowledge in an integrated teaching and learning setting. The study was conducted in a Year 9 classroom as students undertook a 10-week solar-powered boat project and were exposed to related concepts from science, technology and mathematics. Data collection involved…

Background: To date researchers have given little attention to the use of quality of life (QOL) data for organization and systems-level change. This article presents two state-level examples of how QOL data are currently used in the USA. Method: Individuals with intellectual disability (ID) were assessed on an ongoing basis using two…

This paper provides some conceptualisation on educational quality, which could be the basis for comparison with available indicator sets. In a second section standards and benchmarks and methods to define these are discussed. A third section covers the theme of the use and usefulness of education indicators and results from educational monitoring…

An annual-case process that examines principal leadership over the course of a year can provide extensive opportunities for practitioners and professors to collect, examine, and disseminate knowledge in, of, and about practice. Such cases can support professional development and pre-service preparation and become bases for research across multiple…