This report presents summary analyses of descriptive and comparative data collected during the 1973 Home Start evaluation project. The data presented were collected at 6 of the 16 Home Start sites, from three experimental groups of families (those entering the Home Start and Head Start programs in fall 1973 and those identified to enter Home Start…

This study concerns the development of a measure of educational need and its use in a State school support formula in New York. The study assumes that public schools should operate positively to further equality of opportunity and that schools are able to affect achievement levels and rates of learning. The present State-aid formula is not…

The purpose of this study, completed with personnel who work in local disaster services, was to obtain data to test Etzioni's model of consensus and effectiveness. The data indicate that both early socialization and communication with elites are associated with consensus formation. Consensus formation and communication have direct and significant…

This guide for researchers introduces important research methodologies and data collecting techniques, provides a framework for the critical assessment of existing research, and encourages involvement of academics and practitioners in research. Chapter 1, on planning a research project, discusses scheduling, time management, and planning the…

In fall 1995, the United States had 27,686 private elementary and secondary schools. Data on these private schools, organized by school size, school level, religious orientation, geographical region, community type, and program emphasis are presented in this report. The information was collected from the Private School Survey, which was designed…

Data collection and analysis are frequently neglected by school leaders over the course of the decision-making process. All schools gather large amounts of information about students and teachers, but most data are used to satisfy administrative requirements rather than evaluate school improvement in a systematic fashion. Apprehension regarding…

A wealth of material about education in the United States is collected and released by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The NCES gathers data on all aspects of education from across the country, organizes the data in useful forms, and releases the resulting surveys and studies as survey reports,…

The National Longitudinal Transition Study (NLTS) of Special Education Students provides ongoing information regarding the transition of youth with disabilities from secondary school to early adulthood. The sample for the study, which began with a 1987 survey (Wave 1), involved more than 8,000 youth from the national population of secondary…

The National Longitudinal Transition Study (NLTS) of Special Education Students provides ongoing information to the special education community regarding the transition of youth with disabilities from secondary school to early adulthood. The sample for the study, which began with a 1987 survey (Wave 1), involves more than 8,000 youth from the…

Traditional elementary statistics instruction for non-majors has focused on computation. Rarely have students had an opportunity to interact with real data sets or to use questioning to drive data analysis, common activities among professional statisticians. Inclusion of data gathering and analysis into whole class and small group activities…

At Michigan State University (MSU) we have developed and are testing a faculty survey instrument to gather institution-wide information on outreach activity. We have sought to define consistent quantitative measures that can be used both to describe the whole institution's investment of resources in engagement activities and to establish…

The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) of the National Center for Education Statistics collects data from all sections of postsecondary education. For less-than-two-year institutions, the IPEDS collects data on fall enrollment, completions (earned awards and certificates), etc., from all public institutions in that category and…

This paper discusses the experiences and insight derived from the 1985-1986 Statewide Evaluation of the Early Education Program of Handicapped Children in Louisiana, the multimethod evaluation of preschool intervention projects for handicapped and at-risk children. The program served almost 5,000 handicapped preschoolers and their parents,…

Four different procedures were used for estimating the proportion of persons who would be classified consistently as either passing both of two parallel tests or failing both. These four methods were applied at each of four different mastery level scores for each of three different length tests. Data were based on 50 replications of each procedure…

Evaluations that use imperfect information run into both analytical and political problems. Educational accountability systems based on achievement scores are an instance. Such systems frequently turn out to be irrelevant to policy decisions, resisted by educational interest groups that fear unflattering comparisons and the misuse of results, and…