The purpose of this paper is to describe best practices in designing and implementing strong quasi-experimental designs (QED) when assessing the effectiveness of policies, programs or practices. The paper first discusses the issues researchers face when choosing to conduct a QED, as opposed to a more rigorous randomized controlled trial design.…

Teacher learning is of significant importance in mainstream education and a number of attempts have been made to measure the quality of teacher learning across different contexts. The available instruments, however, have been originally developed to assess teachers' perceptions of a single contributive element of teacher learning; therefore,…

Transition to university is an important and potentially stressful life event for students. Previous studies have shown that resilience, delay of gratification and stress can affect the academic performance of students. However, none have shown the effect of these factors in predicting academic performance, hence the current study aimed to look at…

Approximately 30% of students drop out from Norwegian upper secondary schools. Academic achievement, as indexed by grade point average (GPA), is one of the strongest predictors of dropout. The present study aimed to examine the role of cognitive, school-related and affective/psychological predictors of GPA. In addition, we examined the…

Understanding factors that influence mothers' beliefs about appropriate levels of supervision for their children may assist in efforts to reduce child injury rates. This study examined the interaction of child (i.e. age, gender, and injury risk behavior) and maternal perception of environmental hazard (i.e. hazard level, injury likelihood,…

The present study aims to investigate the effectiveness of scaffolding interactive activities in developing the English listening comprehension skills of sixth grade elementary schoolgirls in Jeddah. The subjects in this study were 50 sixth grade pupils at an elementary school in Jeddah. They were assigned to two groups--control and…

This guide presents the results of research on day care monitoring methods conducted by the Children's Services Monitoring Transfer Consortium. It suggests a set of generic predictor items that can be used to monitor day care providers' compliance with standards. The predictor items are at the licensing or minimal compliance level and have been…

Indicator checklists (questionnaires or checklists that contain selected predictive items from longer, comprehensive instruments) are used by states to monitor the conformance of human service providers with state requirements. This guide provides instructions for developing such a checklist as part of an instrument-based program monitoring…

The development of a checklist for use in monitoring and evaluating the quality of child care services, and the implications of use of the checklist by day care providers, are discussed. Several research studies that used the indicator checklist model have attempted to determine whether compliance with state child care regulations has a positive…

The relation between compliance with child care regulations and the quality of day care programs is discussed, and predictors of child care compliance are identified. Substantial compliance (90-97 percent, but not a full 100 percent compliance with state day care regulations) positively affects children. Low compliance (below 85 percent…

This book reports on a 40-year longitudinal study of factors that foster or inhibit creativity over time. Students in elementary grades were originally evaluated from 1958 to 1964. Follow-up in 1980 led to development of a Manifesto for Children which summarized conclusions in the form of guidance for aphorisms such as "Don't be afraid to fall in…

Analysis of data on 2,000 children from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth suggests that maternal intelligence is a significant predictor of scores on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised. The HOME Inventory short forms used in the study are appended. (LB)

The Child Development Program Evaluation Scale (CDPES) is actually two scales in one, a licensing scale and a quality scale. Licensing predictor items have been found to predict overall compliance of child day care centers with state regulations in four states. Quality scale items have been found to predict the overall quality of child day care…