Investigating University-School Partnerships: A Volume in Professional Development School Research, the fourth book in the PDS Research Series developed by the same editors, includes a collection of organized papers that represent the best and latest examples of practitioner thinking, research, and program design and evaluation in the field at the…

Presents a critical rejoinder to Stedman's article that dismisses the validity of school effectiveness guidelines. Stedman has misused school effectiveness research findings, for the data actually support these characteristics. Stedman's generalized alternatives lack adequate supportive evidence. (CJH)

Presents common attributes of effective evaluation systems, which are drawn from studies in Arizona, Michigan, and Vermont. Attributes include participant acceptance of validity, participant understanding of system mechanics and rationale, properly trained evaluators, a variety of evaluation methods, and evaluation as a district priority. (CJH)

Strength and integrity issues are central to planning and interpreting evaluation studies. In the absence of actual data from previous studies, estimates of strength and integrity can often be derived in other ways. These issues of strength and integrity are described in the context of resource allocation in evaluation research. (Author/BS)

Education currently faces a crisis in curriculum reform which presents a danger to pedagogical programs. Changes in teacher education programs should be based on research and should be accomplished by a reflective and rational process. Methods of reform are explored. (DF)

Reviews research concerning sustained silent reading and lists factors that are important in determining whether such a reading program is successful. (FL)

This paper reviews the literature concerning school-wide discipline systems. It examines strategies suggested by experts, the effectiveness of these systems, and research indicating promising school-wide discipline practices. Only systems containing proactive or positive school-wide procedures were considered in the review of 34 articles. The…

Selected research studies in general business are reported, dealing with characteristics of an effective teacher of general business, use of audiovisual media to assist the teaching-learning process, and effectiveness of the general business course. Keeping abreast of and undertaking needed research is necessary to improve general business…

Discusses the differing opinions that result from educational, economic, and sociological inquiry into the outcomes and impact of formal schooling; concludes that economic and sociological analyses of educational outcomes help clarify the functions and purposes of school and college curricula. (LRA)

This article reviews how tutoring systems have been applied across specialized subject areas (e.g., music, horticulture, health and safety, social interactions). It summarizes findings, provides an analysis of skills learned within each tutoring system, identifies the respective methodologies, and reports relevant findings, implications, and…

Over its 12-year history, an arthritis patient education program evolved from a basis not grounded in theory to one tightly linked to it. As cycles of research, intervention, and evaluation produced new results, the self-management program was revised and improved. (SK)

This essay on EC 606 264, which found that more intense early intervention programs for children with disabilities were not more effective, comments on the "political incorrectness" of the results, the possibility for misinterpretation of the results, and the need to reexamine beliefs about what contributes to effective intervention programs. (JDD)

Over the past few years Research Data Services (RDS), part of the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), has led numerous large-scale, longitudinal projects. Feedback to schools has been provided for all of these projects, and has been in the form of sets of tables and charts and electronic files illustrating pupil performance and…

Research on teaching can be concerned with teaching in general or it can be conducted with a single kind of subject matter. Which kind of research is more advantageous? This issue arises in the planning of programs of research on teaching. The generic approach looks for uniformities, concepts, and principles that apply across all or many subject…

A study conducted in 1987 focused on the extent to which a graduate introductory educational research course was helpful to the students who had taken it. Responses from 340 former students indicated that they had been able to utilize in their jobs basic skills developed in the course. The purpose of the present study, which focuses on those 340…