Special educators are urged to use research findings to inform their instruction in order to improve student outcomes. However, it can be difficult to tell whether and how research findings apply to one's own students. In this article, we discuss how special educators can consider the samples and the sampling methods in studies to examine the…

Performance contracting has been acclaimed as an effective and promising means of improving the performance of public enterprises as well as government departments. The government of Kenya introduced performance contract signing in 2004. The aim of performance contracts was to improve resource utilization in public institutions among other…

While there is growing attention to sexual minorities in adult education (AE) and human resource development (HRD) literature, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people have received very little attention in AE or in HRD research. This article captures methodological issues and concerns from LBGTQ-related research from…

Methodological and political issues arise during the designing, conducting, and reporting of campus-climate studies for LGBT students. These issues interact; making a decision about a methodological issue (e.g., sample size) has an impact on a political issue (e.g., how well the findings will be received). Ten key questions that must be addressed…

The research literature on screening and brief intervention (SBI) for unhealthy alcohol use is large and diverse. More than 50 clinical trials and 9 systematic reviews have been published on SBI in a range of healthcare settings, and via a variety of delivery approaches, in general practice, hospital wards, emergency departments, addiction…

Practical significance is concerned with whether a research result is useful in the real world. The use of procedures to supplement the null hypothesis significance test in four journals of the American Psychological Association is examined, and an approach to assessing practical significance is presented. (SLD)

Several developments growing out of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are reviewed, with a discussion of their extension and application to other projects. These developments include: (1) complex matrix item sampling designs; (2) performance-based items in large-scale assessments; (3) vertical scaling; and (4) innovative…

A career experiences survey at the University of California Irvine is described including: the benefits and uses of its findings, administrative framework and strategies for approval, sampling, treatment of data, college related skills alumni have found useful, where to house a study of campus, and dissemination of findings. (MLW)

Assessment generally refers to large-scale, system-wide measurement programs for pupil diagnosis; pupil certification; program evaluation; research; accountability; resource allocations; or teacher evaluation. The purpose of assessment should determine the test content, construction, administration, and examinees sampled. Assessment methods for…