Examines the problem of how to account for the observation of research on cold fusion after the apparent closure of the controversy in 1990. Despite the controversy, scientists continue to work with cold fusion. Examines whether the controversy is in fact closed, creating a hybrid category, "undead." (Author/CCM)

Notes that faculty members in communication departments or schools of journalism and mass communication must navigate between the Scylla of diminishing faculty lines and the Charybdis of the turbulent waters of academic scholarship. Examines problems faced by journalism and communication researchers and places their work in a contemporary…

The National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education in the United Kingdom (the Dearing Committee) aimed to examine short-term problems and long-term development more efficiently than did previous inquiries. The committee's uneven engagement with research and academic literatures reflects general features of higher education's contemporary…

Explicates the statement, "Results of most non-traditional authorship studies are not universally accepted as definitive." Lists and discusses six problems associated with these studies, and suggests a similar number of solutions. Argues that future nontraditional attribution studies must be held to a higher standard of competency and…

Presents three mini-essays reviewing progress made on three problems in text comprehension (two traditional and one newer problem): their relationship between sentence processes and text processes; individual differences in discourse comprehension; and the representation of multiple-text information, which exposes fresh views of problems of…

Addresses generalizability theory (GT), which offers a flexible framework for assessing dependability of measurement. GT allows for consideration of multiple sources of error, allowing investigators to assess the overall impact of measurement error. Illustrative analyses demonstrate the special advantages of GT for planning studies in which…

Highlighting Success for All, this article argues that federal funds are being used to support the promulgation and biased evaluation of failed programs. Educators need to beware of conflicts of interest and developers' misleading claims about publicly and privately developed programs. Independent evaluators are needed. (MLH)

David Baker and Cornelius Riordan mistakenly claim that Catholic schools failed in the 1950s because they were mediocre. Their article is a house of cards built on a distortion of history and a single new finding that Catholic schools' social-class composition has changed. The "elitism" problem, stemming from rising costs, can be remedied by more…

The exploratory nature of much research on organizational training makes case studies vital to the construction of knowledge and theory. However, case study research poses problems in terms of access to organizations, data collection, confidentiality, and the coordination of multiple studies. (SK)

Explores effects of ignoring one or more levels of variation in hierarchical linear regression analysis, using a model with four hierarchical levels. Ignoring the top or intermediate levels influences fixed coefficients, variance components, and their corresponding standard error and can lead to different research conclusions. (Contains 16…

A study of 64 single-subject studies examined effectiveness of social skills intervention with students with emotional or behavioral problems. The results of quantitative synthesis procedures that use a percentage of nonoverlapping data suggest that skills interventions had limited empirical support for their overall effectiveness. Implications…

At regular intervals during the past 20 years, George Psacharapoulos has presented aggregate rates of return (RORs) to investments in education for each major geographical region. He claims high aggregate social RORs for primary education throughout the world. Reexamination of the data shows that none of Psacharapoulos's ROR patterns exist in…

The National Reading Panel admits its evaluation report on phonics is seriously flawed as to organization, methodology, appropriateness of research base, generalizability of results, reliability, validity, and accuracy of data reported. However, an influential public-relations machine is promoting the study's favorable results as unvarnished…

This essay begins by discussing the current cynicism regarding the usefulness of research-based strategies in the field of education. Using examples of high-quality research that utilizes diverse methodologies, a framework is presented for thinking about various types of research and their implications. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

Discusses issues inherent in two meta-analyses of instructional interventions for students with learning disabilities conducted by Elbaum and Vaughn, and Swanson. Notes the value of these studies to the field of education, and summarizes important findings. (JPB)