This dissertation considers the effects of national rankings, specifically the 2010 National Research Council (NRC)'s Data-Based Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs, on higher education institutions' behavior. National research studies of graduate education require significant resources and data, yet it is uncertain how universities make…

Disparities in college access for underrepresented urban students are one of the most urgent educational problems of America's education system. In response to growing national concern, this longitudinal study investigated how school leaders worked collaboratively with key stakeholders to implement research-supported student services in order to…

This publication provides summary analytical reports and graphic displays from the official Course and Section Analysis (CASA) system concerning the instructional workload and the financial resources of academic departments offering courses during the fall 1994 semester within the State University of New York system. The first of six reports…

This publication provides summary analytical reports and graphic displays from the official Course and Section Analysis (CASA) system concerning the instructional workload and the financial resources of academic departments offering courses during the fall 1990 semester within the State University of New York system. Included are six reports. The…

Discusses effects on graduate sociology education of trends emphasizing quantitative methods and the positivist tradition at the expense of social theory and interpretive sociology. Argues that failure to develop sociology's interpretive tradition has allowed the style and intellectual creativity of sociological work to suffer. Urges greater…

A study testing many hypotheses from recent literature on college tuition determination is reported. The persistence of hypothesized relationships through several decades of varying environmental conditions and institutional circumstances serves as a basis for recommendations regarding the control of tuition increases in U.S. colleges and…

Presents three different, complementary statistical models for predicting faculty tenure dynamics, using data from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Massachusetts). The difference equation model exactly describes future behavior but requires complete specification. The Markov-chain model can predict the full life-cycle of tenure from initial age…

Presents three categories of approaches to assess the impact of college supplemental instruction (SI) programs on an institution: anecdotal information; descriptive statistics; and inferential statistics. For SI programs required to justify their existence, these methods include a range of assessment devices from simple testimony to rigorous…

A quantitative study modeled the inherently subjective admissions process for 592 graduate school candidates and 72 raters. Logistic regression models were well-fitting and parsimonious, allowing analysis of each stage of the process. Extended committee discussion/deliberation phases were of limited productivity when inter-rater agreement was…

This manual has been designed as a practical guide to quantifying and measuring the results, or outputs, of public library service to children. The basic output measures presented are tailored to reflect library services to children (defined as persons 14 years old and younger) and their care givers. Six categories of measures are presented: (1)…

Presents methods for assessing the impact and economic viability of federal equal-educational-opportunity programs, particularly in higher education. Techniques for gathering needed data and analyzing them are offered in the context of a hypothetical community college Veterans Upward Bound (VUB) program and two real VUB programs. (MSE)

This executive summary of the 1986 Survey of Microcomputers in Higher Education presents the highlights of each of the major areas covered by the survey: (1) general policy; (2) microcomputer availability; (3) microcomputer access; (4) microcomputer acquisition; (5) software availability; and (6) software support. The 211 survey respondents were…

A survey of 162 students in several sections of a master of social work basic research methodology and statistics course, taught by different teachers, found that student performance did not differ across instructors, undergraduate grade point average was positively correlated with performance, and an undergraduate social service major was…

A study analyzed characteristics of 392 University of Dayton (Ohio) students borrowing through the Perkins Loan Program to discover their relative impact on loan default behavior, and developed a model to help predict individual potential defaulters. Financial aid policy recommendations aimed at reducing default costs at the institution are…

This report describes a use study designed to facilitate the selection of books that will be needed and used by identifying heavily used subjects and publishers in an academic library's collection of nursing books. Discussions include the study background and significance, study limitations, and basic assumptions. In addition, the procedures for…