The article cites data collection instruments and summarizes findings reported by IBEX, Inc., a firm under contract with Illinois' Office of Education, vocational division, to evaluate secondary consumer and homemaking education programs in Illinois in 1975. Found to be generally successful, each program's strengths, weaknesses, and most effective…

Progress monitoring is a method of keeping track of children's academic development. Progress monitoring requires frequent data collection (i.e., weekly) with technically adequate measures, interpretation of the data at regular intervals, and changes to instruction based on the interpretation of child progress. This report presents two cases that…

Responding to an increasingly urgent need for collaboration between mathematicians and mathematics educators, the study reported in this paper engages mathematicians as educational co-researchers in a series of themed Focus Group interviews where a pre-distributed sample of mathematical problems, typical written student responses, observation…

We can fill the gap between theory (of ambitious teacher education) and practice (in mathematics classrooms) more easily, when we take into account that teacher education is not only explicit acquisition of knowledge and methods but also development of individual personal constructs of mathematics and mathematics education. But how can we get…

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) partnered with Andrew Porter and John Smithson of Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) to develop an advanced, in depth approach to collecting and reporting data on the "enacted curriculum" in K-12 math and science, i.e. the actual subject content and instructional practices experienced…

Notes how the wording of questions can affect the results of surveys and questionnaires. Suggests activities to help students become critical listeners, viewers, and readers. (RL)

Discusses how connecting instruction, professional development, and student learning can make the difference between successful and unsuccessful data use. Uses a case-study approach to show that by acknowledging that implementation occurs over time, schools can safeguard against discarding new instructional practices prematurely. (Contains one…

Evaluates the methodological adequacy of 37 studies of reading comprehension strategy instruction according to criteria of both internal and external validity. Finds many strengths, but identifies six important weaknesses. Suggests guidelines for planning future studies, and urges comprehension researchers to pay more attention to methodological…

Presents an account of Italy's environmental research project carried out by five high schools, titled the Water Analysis Project. Examines the historical and socioeconomic context in which it grew and developed; its objectives, processes, professional and pedagogical results. Discusses student and teacher benefits from the project. (MCO)

Elementary teachers can help students consider how much trash they create by analyzing lunchroom waste. Students research the problem, brainstorm lists of items thrown away, and monitor the cafeteria, counting items and collecting data. They enter information into a spreadsheet which the class examines to search for alternatives. (SM)

Describes an activity to study the concepts of force and gravity. Students use trigonometry to measure the height of a water balloon shot into the air by a giant slingshot by two methods. A lesson plan provides materials needed, procedures, a chart to record data, and extensions for the activity. (MDH)

In the process of collecting assessment data in the author's introductory sociology course, he made a startling and disappointing discovery. For the most part, students simply were not bothering to read the basics version of the introductory survey textbook that he assigned. This discovery presented him with two related challenges. First, he had…

It is important to be able to describe instructional practices accurately in order to support research on "what works" in education and professional development as a basis for efforts to improve practice. This report describes a project to develop procedures for characterizing classroom practices in mathematics and science on the …

This article discusses walk-throughs as a valuable source of instructional data for teachers and administrators. Data gathering and analysis can be a dynamic and exciting process when walk-throughs are incorporated into a school's improvement plan as an instructional snapshot. At Norris High School in Firth, Nebraska, the principal uses…

This paper describes a study of the ways in which teachers of foreign languages (English and other languages) to adults begin their lessons, the purposes that underlie their habitual practices, and students' attitudes to these practices. Among the conclusions reached are the following: (1) in the context described, teachers appear to attach…