Salaries and benefits for instruction are the largest component of school operating costs for public schools (U.S. Department of Education 2007). The level and structure of this compensation can play an important role in the recruitment and retention of a high-quality teaching workforce. Thus, detailed and reliable data on teacher pay and benefits…

A long standing debate among policymakers as well as researchers is whether and how funding affects the quality of education. Often missing from the discussion is information about the costs of providing education at the school level and below, yet such information could impart a better indication of the linkages between outcomes and resources…

In this study, the consistency of on-task data collected across raters using either a Daily Behavior Report Card (DBRC) or systematic direct observation was examined to begin to understand the decision reliability of using DBRCs to monitor student behavior. Results suggested very similar conclusions might be drawn when visually examining data…

Q-technique factor analysis identifies clusters or factors of people, rather than of variables, and has proven very popular, especially with regard to testing typology theories. The present study investigated the utility of three different protocols for obtaining data for Q-technique studies. These three protocols were: (1) a conventional ipsative…

Compares two basic variants of the sorting method: single-sort and multiple sort. The nature of individual differences in sorting, as well as sex differences, were also investigated. Stimulus materials were the 15 mutually exclusive kinship terms selected by Wallace and Atkins (1960). (RC)

The Education Data Improvement Project of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is described. The conceptual framework that guided its implementation is presented. The Education Data Improvement Project was designed to promote and facilitate the reform and refinement of the Center for Education Statistics (CES) national elementary and…

This paper describes the rationale for the Defining Issues Test (DIT), an objective test of moral judgment which attempts to improve upon three aspects of Kohlberg's research: data collection, categorization of moral judgments (the scoring system), and method of indexing a subject's progress in a developmental sequence. In each case, the way in…

THIS INVESTIGATION WAS DESIGNED TO PROVIDE DATA ABOUT THE CHARACTERISTICS OF SOCIAL-POLITICAL ACTION LEADERS AT ONE UNIVERSITY AND TO COMPARE THOSE CHARACTERISTICS WITH OTHER TYPES OR CATEGORIES OF STUDENT LEADERS. NINE RESEARCH HYPOTHESES IN NULL FORM WERE FORMULATED TO FACILITATE STATISTICAL TREATMENT OF THE DATA. FROM A TOTAL OF 559 ELECTED…

Key findings are presented from a survey conducted by the California Research Bureau showing that most California school districts incorporate violence prevention program curricula with a strong police and security presence. Many schools have installed closed circuit video surveillance cameras, canine searches, and metal detectors. Unfortunately,…

The two problems examined were the effect of observers in the typical classroom and the possibility of regional bias in local observers' data. (LN)

Effects of sex and birth order on interactions between mothers and their six-month-old infants (matched in social class, infant's birth order, and sex) were studied using different sequential behavioral analyses. Results for each method are discussed. (Author/AEF)

Various aspects of the institutional evaluation process are discussed including: pitfalls to avoid, choice of indicators, audience, accountability, futures research, technological change, program termination, data sources, longitudinal data, political aspects, advertising, marketing, and internal v external evaluators. (Author/SF)

Two types of verbal-report data (concurrent and retrospective) and four major introspective methods used in second-language research (L2) (thinking-aloud, questionnaires, interviews, diary-keeping) are described in a discussion of introspective L2 research studies. It is argued that, though incomplete, verbal reports from informant-learners offer…

After a mailed questionnaire and two follow-ups, hard-core survey nonrespondents were contacted to ask why they had not responded and what they would have answered had they responded. Results from 28 subjects indicate that efforts to pursue nonrespondents may be unnecessary, because bias resulting from nonresponse appeared minimal. (SLD)

Evaluates "College & Research Libraries" and "Journal of Academic Librarianship" on the basis of types of articles published, structure of articles, types of statistics used, and data-collection methods. Results indicate that surveys are the primary form of data collection and descriptive statistics are used more frequently…