This paper argues that to be appropriate the evaluation of teaching must occur under circumstances entirely free of the limitations which inferential statistics necessarily impose on teaching. Regardless of whether the statistical, design, and treatment assumptions required for the valid use of inferential statistics in education are met,…

This report contains the original article by Christopher Jencks and Mary Jo Bane on inequality, which was based on the book entitled, Inequality: A Reassessment of the Effect of Family and Schooling in America, by Christopher Jencks and others. To assist school administrators in assessing Jencks' findings, the American Association of School…

This speech presents the results of a study of five psychological need classes, ordered from the most basic to the least basic -- security, social, esteem, autonomy, and self actualization. A questionnaire on need satisfaction was applied to a sample of public school administrators. Analysis revealed that there is no relation between…

Community colleges must often analyze and report rates for outcomes, such as transfer to four-year colleges. A single, summary rate may be an invalid measure of its achievement in the transfer goal if the summary rate ignores the real difference in enrollment composition at different institutions. California's community colleges embody a very…

A meta-analysis for six weight-loss studies comparing the efficacy of cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) alone to CBT plus hypnotherapy. Notes that "the addition of hypnosis substantially enhanced treatment outcome." Concludes that the addition of hypnosis to CBT for weight loss results in, at most, a small enhancement of treatment…

Datasets are often under-exploited by institutions, yet they contain evidence that is potentially of high value for planning and decision-making. This article shows how institutional data were used to determine whether the demographic background of students might have an influence on their performance: this is a matter of particular interest where…

When studying different types of returns to education, educational reforms are commonly used in the economics literature as a source of exogenous variation in education. The Swedish compulsory school reform is one example; the reform extended compulsory education throughout the country, in different municipalities at different points in time. Such…

This report from the California State Postsecondary Education Commission updates California college-going statistics for recent graduates of the state's public and private high schools through fall 1988. Rates are shown for the University of California, the California State University, the California Community Colleges, and independent California…

Countries with mature social security systems have declining rates of labor force participation of the aged. The experience of nine countries (United States, Canada, Belgium, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom) over the last two decades provided the statistical data presented and analyzed in the…

This guide is designed to assist those readers of "The Condition of Education" and similar reports who may lack experience or confidence in reading and understanding statistical information. It serves four purposes (1) identifies and describes the principal features of statistical tables and charts; (2) presents a few illustrations of…

The objective of this study was to devise a methodology for predicting the return or nonreturn of a student for the spring semester, upon his completion of the fall term. Nineteen variables from existing student files were examined by several multivariate analyses to determine their ability to help in such a prediction. The random sample was of…

Empirical evidence is presented related to the effects of using a stratified sampling of items in multiple matrix sampling on the accuracy of estimates of the population mean. Data were obtained from a sample of 600 high school students for a 36-item mathematics test and a 40-item vocabulary test, both subtests of the Iowa Tests of Educational…

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…

This report discusses the capabilities of a computer program called the Detroit Metropolitan Area Data System (DMADS) which was developed to make it possible to manipulate and analyze data from the U.S. census. At the present time the DMADS can be used to generate statistical data and maps of the seven county Detroit area. DMADS contains 2500…

The amount of change resulting from the implementation of the Bibliographic Automation of Large Library Operations using a Time-sharing System (BALLOTS) is analyzed, in terms of (1) physical room arrangement, (2) work procedure, and (3) organizational structure. Also considered is the factor of amount of time the new system has been in use.…