Systematic reviews have witnessed significant growth across many fields, including education. In this article, we outline the background of this growth, highlight the tendency to focus on methodological considerations, and propose a framework to support education researchers in preparing systematic reviews with broad impact. We draw on our…

Despite increased attention to methodological rigor in education research, the field has focused heavily on experimental design and not on the merit of replicating important results. The present study analyzed the complete publication history of the current top 100 education journals ranked by 5-year impact factor and found that only 0.13% of…

Bureaucratic representation--the idea that a governmental organization is better situated to serve its clients when its employee composition reflects that of its client population--has received considerable scholarly attention in the study of public institutions in the fields of political science and public administration. In a wide variety of…

As evidence becomes increasingly important in educational policy, it is essential to understand how research design might contribute to reported effect sizes in experiments evaluating educational programs. A total of 645 studies from 12 recent reviews of evaluations of preschool, reading, mathematics, and science programs were studied. Effect…

The purpose of this article is to move readers toward a deeper understanding of and widened respect for autoethnography's capacity as an empirical endeavor. An argument is presented in favor of autoethnography as empirical by translating information from its epistemological and methodological history across the AERA standards for reporting…

In this article, the author provides an overview of existing literature addressing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT), and queer issues in higher education. She argues that although colleges and universities are the source of much critical and postmodern writing about LGBT and queer topics, scholarship on LGBT/queer people and…

In their "Telling Identities: In Search of an Analytic Tool for Investigating Learning as a Culturally Shaped Activity", Anna Sfard and Anna Prusak articulate the promise of story or narrative in defining identity as an analytic tool in sociocultural research on learning. The article strives toward a process-rich notion of identity that responds…

To ensure accurate interpretation of research findings, researchers should report details about their research design, data collection method, and response rates when presenting findings from survey research. A review of 100 peer-reviewed articles reporting the results of survey research on K-12 schools with principals as the designated…

This article delineates how race has been undertheorized in research on the educational experiences and outcomes of Blacks. The authors identify two dominant traditions by which researchers have invoked race (i.e., as culture and as a variable) and outline their conceptual limitations. They analyze how these traditions mask the heterogeneity of…

Analyzes the differences in the goals, philosophies, and procedures of psychometric and econometric educational research, due to the different research contexts within which each approach is used. Argues that econometric research, with its emphasis on generalized, noncausal inferences, may not be relevant or helpful to educational researchers.…

Findings of a study on the kinds of questions posed in the educational research literature showed that questions appeared in only half of the sample; the majority inquired about a single variable; and few entailed any kind of relation between two phenomena, least of all causal relations. No topic predominated. (CMG)

Describes the development of multisite qualitative research (studies that address the same question in several settings and use similar research procedures in each setting) and its use in educational research. Presents the results of a survey of 25 multisite qualitative educational studies to highlight the design's institutional and methodological…

The authors of this article examine the analytic and reporting features of research articles cited in "Studying Teacher Education: The Report of the AERA Panel on Research and Teacher Education" (Cochran-Smith & Zeichner, 2005b) that used quantitative reporting practices. Their purpose was to help to identify reporting practices that can be…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) must use sampling techniques that produce data which are representative on national, state, and local levels. The validity of findings is enhanced when state and district comparisons are made. Multiple measures will allow the diagnosis of strengths and weaknesses. The data should be…

Explores the roles that interpretation plays in qualitative research and theory building and considers three types of interpretation: patterning, social meanings, and external considerations. Also explores criteria for judging interpretations, and the issues of objectivity/subjectivity and universality/generalizability of interpretive science.…