The purpose of this article is to provide a resource for school counselors to recognize key indicators of quality quantitative research and make informed decisions about incorporating scholarly works into school counseling practice and comprehensive program development. We describe quality indicators of quantitative research by walking readers…

On the long and arduous journey toward effective educational assessment, business schools have progressed in their ability to clearly state measurable learning goals and use direct measures of student learning. However, many schools are wrestling with the last stages of the journey--measuring present learning outcomes, implementing…

Bayesian statistical methods have become more feasible to implement with advances in computing but are not commonly used in educational research. In contrast to frequentist approaches that take hypotheses (and the associated parameters) as fixed, Bayesian methods take data as fixed and hypotheses as random. This difference means that Bayesian…

COMPASS-AIM is a set of processes and tools used by participants in a research-practice partnership (RPP) to improve organizational capacities and individual and team competencies for organizational learning and improvement. The "COMPASS" team includes teams of teachers and school leaders who work with a university researcher and expert…

Purpose: Whilst beneficial, the use of evidence to improve teaching and learning in schools is proving difficult to achieve in practice. The purpose of this paper is to shed new light on this issue by examining the applicability of a model of rational behaviour as relates to the notion of evidence-informed practice (EIP). Specifically, exploring…

This report explores background data collected as part of recent large-scale literacy surveys because these data may contribute to an understanding of the variables associated with demonstrated proficiency. The first section reviews various approaches to large-scale assessments of literacy. This review sets the context for exploring variation in…

Discusses the potential for increasing library effectiveness through the appropriate design and utilization of research and describes fundamental research and statistical techniques. Topics examined include areas amenable to data collection, data collection methods amenable to statistical analysis, measurement techniques and levels of…

Increased demands for colleges and universities to engage in outcomes assessment for accountability purposes have accelerated the need to bridge the gap between higher education practice and the fields of measurement, assessment, and evaluation. The "Handbook on Measurement, Assessment, and Evaluation in Higher Education" provides higher…

The communication of research findings among collegiate institutional researchers is considered in relation to the contribution of qualitative language in general, and catastrophe theory in particular. The qualitative language of catastrophe theory may help reduce the arbitrariness of description, through identification of qualitative features…

In this paper, the authors describe a research study being carried out in a Pennsylvania school district as a means of demonstrating the role of research in administrative decisionmaking. The research began when the district requested the assistance of the authors in initiating a program of change in the district. The change approach used in the…

Possible impacts of changing information technology on the role of the institutional researcher, who serves as a decision support intermediary, are examined. Attention is directed to measurement, human information processing, and decision support technology. It is noted that management information systems are dependent on measurement for data…

Classroom teachers need to make sound judgments and decisions concerning curricular and instructional issues. The teachers who wish to become more effective in the classroom should learn to develop their own research designs since educational research reported in journals is often inconclusive, conflicting, or not relevant to the classroom…

This project was conducted to refine and expand previous research indicating the need for an instrument counselors can use in working with area secondary schools and potential students to assess their progress in making career and training decisions. Instruments developed during this research process were pilot tested at two area schools and…