Educational researchers commonly use the rule of thumb of "design effect smaller than 2" as the justification of not accounting for the multilevel or clustered structure in their data. The rule, however, has not yet been systematically studied in previous research. In the present study, we generated data from three different models…

Education statistics are rarely neutral; those who collect and analyze them have different purposes. In this article, Bracey discusses several principles of data interpretation to help educators avoid falling into statistical traps. For example, because such reports as A Nation At Risk contain many "selected, spun, distorted, and even manufactured…

Discusses recent protest concerning the conduct of survey research. (SL)

Makes several methodological points to bear on a previously written article on residential segregation. Notes that although the conclusions given in the original article may be statements of fact, they do not follow as inevitably from the data as the article suggests. (Author/AM)

Concludes that the issues raised by a critic of the original article bearing this title arise largely, from his failure to consider in detail the assertions made in the articles about the context within which causal inferences can be made using correlation and regression coefficients. (Author/AM)

This book is designated for an audience of the practitioners of education, especially those located in elementary schools. It is designed to investigate and explain research methods, terms, and concepts so that the reader can narrow down the many ways things are known or said to be known. Included in this book are chapters on the research process…

Discusses three weaknesses in reporting research findings by commenting and criticizing research articles published in the eighth volume of Journal of Research in Science Teaching. (CC)

Since problems associated with the statistical methodology of educational research are becoming increasingly important, this paper examines a subset of problems associated with the analysis and interpretation of aggregated data. Two major questions arise: (1) if a researcher knows the level (e.g., individual, teacher/classroom, school, school…

The "history of education" should no longer be considered an independent field for research and teaching. Many important questions in the history of ideas have been and continue to be numberically based, and require quantitative analysis to be answered. Revisionism in history has often involved the use of a quantitative methodology. (Author/JM)

This paper discusses the problems of gathering and analyzing data on classroom behaviors. The difficulties involved in using the common pretest-posttest experimental design are described. To grapple with these problems, a study was conducted on the effect of environmental changes on student behavior, employing a time-series design and time-series…

The problem of variability of data, even in presumable homogeneous subgroupings of handicapped children, which contaminates the results of many special education curriculum evaluation studies is examined with a study of 103 second-grade learning disabled students. The distortion of statistics calculated on samples of extreme variability; coupled…

Suggesting that James Coleman's paper on massive school desegragation reveals methodological flaws of such magnitude that they raise serious questions as to the validity of the conclusions, this paper addresses a full sequence of perceived methodological errors found in the Coleman document, but does not dismiss the conclusions based upon initial…

This monograph covers the theory, application, and interpretation of both descriptive and inferential statistical techniques in institutional research. Each chapter opens with a hypothetical case study, which is used to illustrate the application of one or more statistical procedures to typical research questions. Chapter 2 covers the comparison…