This article critically explores data generated within a participatory research project with young people in the care of a local authority, the (Extra)ordinary Lives project. The project involved ethnographic multi-media data generation methods used in groups and individually with eight participants (aged 10-20) over a school year and encouraged…

Evaluative instruments designed to assess a university's or college's institutionalization of service-learning practices have been devised and widely utilized. These instruments often come with assumptions about aligning data with decision making. To date, attempts to document community engagement practices within a department or an entire…

In this article the four pedagogical components outlined by the New London Group (1996)--situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, and transformed practice--were used to focus attention on the case studies of three beginning teachers and their use of digital media (particularly the creation of a digital literacy autobiography) in an…

The development of integrated, portable, transformer condition monitoring (TCM) equipment for classroom demonstrations as well as for student exercises conducted in the field is discussed. Demonstrations include experimentation with real-world transformers to illustrate concepts such as polarization and depolarization current through oil-paper…

The purpose of this study was to apply and explore, in the context of an Icelandic preschool, the methods developed by the New Zealand "Te Whaariki" curriculum to assess children's well-being and learning dispositions. This article describes the process of piloting learning stories as a research method, where researchers and preschool…

Institutional researchers are responsible for the collection, organization, analysis, and maintenance of large amounts of personally identifiable data on students, faculty, and staff. Not only are institutional research (IR) offices required to report these data to state and federal agencies, they are also responsible for providing information to…

This article addresses the question, "What factors contributed to successful completion of a needs and resource assessment in local communities, using the empowerment evaluation approach?" Case studies of three successful projects allow the exploration of organizational, community, state, and national factors that contributed to a strong needs and…

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) at the U.S. Department of Education developed the Graduation Rate Survey (GRS) to help institutions comply with the "Student Right-to-Know (SRTK) Act" requirements. NCES uses GRS data to calculate graduation rates within 150 percent of normal time for all students in the GRS cohort, as…

As students are asked to share more of the costs of a post-secondary education, the quality of their overall educational experience and perceived return on investment (ROI) are increasingly important. For prospective students and their parents, what they are told they can expect from the student experience at an institution often makes the most…

This study was an investigation of the affect a leader's oral communication skill has on follower performance. The purpose of this study was to explore what affect a leader's oral communication skill with followers has on the quality of the leader-follower relationship and the follower's achievement of the organizations external objectives. A…

Mandated by Congress, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) surveys the educational accomplishments of U.S. students and monitors changes in those accomplishments. NAEP tracks the educational achievement of fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-grade students over time in selected content areas. Since 1969, NAEP has been collecting data…

This qualitative, narrative, phenomenological interview study explored the reasons general education teachers resist teaching in inclusion classrooms. The problem researched was that general education teachers are unwilling to teach in inclusion classrooms in eastern Virginia elementary schools. Twenty participants were interviewed, textual data…

This toolkit is designed to help community schools evaluate their efforts so that they learn from their successes, identify current challenges, and plan future efforts. It provides a step-by-step process for planning and conducting an evaluation at your community school site(s). The toolkit is a practical, hands-on guide that makes it possible for…

Congress created the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to reduce the number of uninsured children in low-income families that do not qualify for Medicaid. States have flexibility in structuring their SCHIP programs, and their income eligibility limits vary. Concerns have been raised that individuals might substitute SCHIP for…

Institutions of higher education, the major source of the nation's scientists and engineers, perform about one-half of the nation's basic research. Therefore, the level, distribution, and characteristics of federal academic support are of much interest to officials at federal, state, and local levels and in nongovernmental sectors. The National…