The validity, reliability, and item characteristics of the Maine Real Estate Licensure Examination were investigated. Its validity was based on its construction; a task analysis was performed on real estate broker and salesperson jobs, items were written by trained personnel; and the test was reviewed by a panel of experts. Differences in scores…

The equality of the opportunities available to males and females in Germany's labor market was examined. The study compared employment patterns among women and men and the extent to which selected discretionary benefits of Germany's Federal Employment Service benefit women and men. Selected results were as follows: (1) women are under-represented…

The presentation looks at the latest statistics on participation in Higher Education, to question whether privatisation of systems has significant effects on participation, affordability and equity of Higher Education. It further looks into questions of autonomy and governance of Higher Education systems in private and public systems, and finally…

This research examined student demographic (gender, ethnicity, grades, and previous home economics experience) and geographic (rural/urban school locale and individual school) factors that may be related to performance on a statewide New Mexico achievement test under development in the home economics subject matter area of consumer education and…

Drawing on papers presented at the rural education seminar, "Ensuring Excellence in Education for Rural America," and other sources, the report consists of an overview, examples of excellence, barriers to excellence, areas of continuing need, and appendices dealing with the conference. Highlights from the executive summary include:…

This paper reports progress on the development of improved measures of income and poverty by accounting for differences in living costs between regions, and on the tracing of relationships between natural resources and income; a reviewer's comments conclude the contents of this workshop collection. The overview describes how a measure of income…

This report presents attempts to understand more about how six background characteristics (small scale, population sparsity, district isolation within a BOCES (Boards of Cooperative Educational Service), interaction between a change in enrollment and initial scale of the district, rapid changes in full value property wealth over time, and large…

As part of an ongoing assessment on adult literacy and the new technologies, this study profiled the similarities and differences among Appalachian and Californian adults with low literacy skills. Two teams of researchers each profiled six adults with low literacy skills. The study population was selected so as to reflect a diverse mix of ages,…

Psychoactive drugs are widely available in the United States. Many, such as coffee, cigarettes, and alcohol, are used commonly and acceptably by adults. For children and adolescents sorting through the complex messages about both licit and illicit drugs is difficult. Previous research examined differences between substance users and abusers with…

The forest products industry is one of the largest manufacturing enterprises in Ohio. Sawmills are a well-known and visible manufacturing sector. This document reports on a descriptive correlational study that investigated perceived educational needs of innovative Ohio sawmill operators which could serve as a model for individuals conducting needs…

Given the increase of tobacco use among adolescents, the understanding of the personality variables and characteristics which are associated with tobacco use is a critical issue today. This study attempted to identify differences and similarities among the value hierarchies of adolescents who have never tried tobacco, adolescent tobacco…

Costs of producing milk rose 53 percent between 1975 and 1984 to $13.57 per hundredweight, whereas cash (out-of-pocket) costs rose 56 percent to $10.64 per hundredweight. Cash receipts, which measure gross production value, peaked in 1981 at $14.94 per hundredweight compared with $9.23 in 1975. Production costs in the Pacific region were more than…

In comparative studies of homicide, many theories compete. This study examined two established theories, stress theory and culture of violence theory, in terms of their ability to explain state-to-state differences in the rate of highly specific types of homicides. The separate and joint effects on homicide committed by handguns, shoulder guns,…

This study compared crime rates of the United States with those of other countries for whom statistics were available: European countries, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Statistics were provided by the United Nations for homicide, rape, robbery, burglary, and theft; the International Police Organization (Interpol) for homicide, rape, robbery,…

The basic principles of the discrepancy evaluation model (DEM), developed by Malcolm Provus, are presented. The three concepts which are essential to DEM are defined: (1) the standard is a description of how something should be; (2) performance measures are used to find out the actual characteristics of the object being evaluated; and (3) the…