This working paper contains the overheads used in a seminar designed to introduce some basic concepts of statistics to nonstatisticians. The seminar has been presented on several occasions. The first part of the seminar, and the first set of overheads, deals with the essentials of statistics, including: (1) population, sample, and inference; (2)…

Defined as the provision of adequate resources to enable all children to meet a state's proficiency standards, school finance adequacy is being addressed in some way in almost every state. Because states are under increasing pressure to define what constitutes an adequate education and determine how to fund it, this issue of "Insights" examines…

A policy-focus Delphi study was conducted to identify the barriers which prohibit handicapped students from entering or completing vocational technical programs in community colleges in Texas and to identify recommendations and tasks relating to the removal of these barriers. A seventy-two member participant group, which included a nineteen member…

The Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) is conducted through questionnaires mailed to teachers, principals, and district administrators in a sample of the nation's public and private schools. First conducted in 1987-88, the SASS is now planned for every 5 years, with a teacher followup 1 year after each SASS. The SASS provides data on the country's…

This report describes the growth in cognitive skills and achievement, and the continuities and discontinuities experienced in school and at home by the eighth-grade cohort of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) during the 2 years between the study's base year (1988) and the first-followup (1990) surveys. The report examines…