This Forum guide offers best practice suggestions on collecting and using student attendance data to improve performance. It includes a standard set of codes to make attendance data comparable across districts and states. There are real-life examples of how attendance information has been used by school districts. Chapter 1 discusses the…

Asserting that inclusion of diverse children in schools is desirable, the article presents recommendations for instruction of heterogeneous groups. Suggestions center around such topics as class size, individualized instruction, multidimensional classrooms, student self-management, opportunities to respond and learn, a positive and accepting…

Suggests how parents can assess a school's effectiveness by examining criterion referenced standardized achievement test results. Discusses (1) which test results will be used, (2) how the data should be analyzed, and (3) into what groups students should be separated to compare test results. (GC)

This manual summarizes technical information regarding the 1982 Stanford Achievement Test, Seventh Edition when administered to hearing-impaired students. In Section 1, the procedures used to select the norming sample (7,557 hearing-impaired students) are described, and the demographic characteristics of the resulting sample are compared to those…

Describes findings from a study of 20 school superintendents, their background characteristics, and the elements in organizational structures around them related to their success in becoming superintendents. The purpose was to determine predictors of access to superintendency, particularly access for women. Some data reveal that discriminatory…

"Seven Rules for Social Research" teaches social scientists how to get the most out of their technical skills and tools, providing a resource that fully describes the strategies and concepts no researcher or student of human behavior can do without. Glenn Firebaugh provides indispensable practical guidance for anyone doing research in the social…

Discusses and differentiates between four commercially available versions of the online source of chemistry information, "Chemical Abstracts": Lockheed, SDC, BRS, and NLM. Disadvantages/advantages of the vendors are considered, and tables are used to show the different print formats and data elements of each version. (JD)

In this article, estimates of the cost of raising a child, that are available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, are described; the most widely requested estimates updated to current price levels are provided; and the most frequently asked questions about the use and interpretation of these estimates are answered. Information on additional…

Offers advice on dealing with parenting differences between divorced spouses. Provides three scenarios to support discussion of the importance of avoiding blame, letting go, and respecting alternate choices; anticipating the need for readjustment when children go from one home to the other; making a home for the child at both places; and…

This paper describes two simple, informal checklists that can be used to assess the range of experiences and activities of preschool children. Data from use of the checklists with a large sample of 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children are provided. (Author/DB)

This booklet is intended primarily to assist persons who are planning and administering group care home programs for children. The fast growth of group homes has increased the variety of resources that are available for children. It may be questioned, however, whether placement skills have kept pace with the increase in placement choices. This…

Asserting that the ability to compare is basic to any cognitive process, this paper draws on Reuven Feuerstein's theory of mediated learning experience to guide teachers in encouraging the development of young students' spontaneous comparative abilities. Teachers are to provide students with concepts, labels, operations, and relationships to…

Adventure programs should go beyond the "four Fs" of diversity activities (food, fashion, festivals, and facts) to explore differences and their implications for social justice. Possible group activities include sharing ethnic and family traditions surrounding a person's name and focusing on the cycle of socialization related to…

A method is described for measuring differences in grading that is free from the effects of individual student abilities and teaching quality. The analysis locates teachers on a continuum scale from "hard" to "easy" and enables the identification of possible extremes in grading that might manifest themselves in unfair treatment of students. (JMD)

This book provides information on what works in education, how teachers can find what works, how educational research can find its way into classrooms, and how teachers can apply it to help individual students. Data come from a meta-analysis of research studies on instructional strategies that could be used by K-12 teachers. Nine research-based…