This supplement contains documentation on all the derived variables contained in the TIMSS 2011 data files that are based on background questionnaire variables. These variables were used to report background data in the TIMSS 2011 International Results in Mathematics and TIMSS 2011 International Results in Science reports, and are made available…

A general guide to organizing and conducting reliable and useful community surveys is reported. Organization for the survey involves identifying and contacting relevant community groups, and meeting with organizational representatives. Constructing a questionnaire involves careful wording and ordering of questions, and determining if questions…

This package has been developed as a resource guide and training aid to assist school administrators who want to improve school-community relations, to involve people meaningfully in decision-making, and to create learning experiences of quality in the community's lifelong educational process. The guidebook lists steps for identifying formal and…

If a survey questionnaire is designed and worded effectively, volunteers can be used to conduct it. Apple Valley-Rosemount (Minnesota) found that volunteers need not be trained in interviewing techniques, and that the school board and administration can reap a wealth of high quality data and benefits not normally available with conventional, more…

A public opinion poll should not only tell the board and administrators what the public thinks but should also indicate what that thinking means. Explains how a school district public opinion poll of real use to the board and administration can be designed to identify public opinion, public knowledge, and public vision; and be conducted with…

This book is intended to aid school officials in conducting effective community surveys for the purpose of improving citizen involvement and influence in educational decision-making. Although the book is of considerable value when used alone, it is designed for use as part of a set of related publications collectively entitled, "Factual Politics."…

These tips on surveying public opinion are based on the contention that community surveys can be useful to educators who want to know what the community is thinking about education, are ready to respond, and have no qualms about making survey results public. The author first discusses the importance of determination of the community survey's…

A secondary analysis of eight years' cumulative results from the annual Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes toward public schools is presented. These eight polls reveal a public that has confidence in its schools and its teachers and supports specific innovations, particularly career education, moral education, and various types of alternative…

The handbook, intended for rural citizens seeking to improve health care in their communities, concentrates on assessment of community health care. Sections cover four steps of the community assessment process, i.e., self preparation, organization, community identification of problems and goals, and community action plan development. "Step One:…

Attitude and opinion research requires considerable planning, careful design of survey procedures and sampling techniques, and practical ways of collecting, analyzing, and reporting results. The following suggestions are based on the extensive public opinion research conducted by the University of Alabama. (1) Decide what specific problem is to be…

To help improve school public relations programs, this handbook tells how to use survey and feedback techniques and how to interpret survey results. The first chapter gives a brief overview of the usefulness of surveys for getting community feedback. Chapter 2 recommends beginning by deciding what one wants to know from a survey, what human and…

Produced as part of the Targeted Outcomes Field Development Project, this handbook provides basic guidelines that can be used by community colleges for organizing and conducting community impact studies. An introductory chapter touches on the broad range of economic, educational, social, and technological impacts which community colleges have upon…

This first in a series of eleven learning modules on program planning, development, and evaluation is designed to develop secondary and postsecondary vocational teachers' skills in planning and directing a community survey which will yield information needed for vocational education program planning to meet community labor requirements.…

There are many thousands of people who are in a position to exert great influence in the work of Americanization, through their leadership or membership in State legislatures, State bureaus and departments, and State organizations, official and voluntary. The primary purpose of this book is to lay before that body of men and women some concrete…