The National Teachers Examinations (NTE) Core Battery scores of initially certified teachers in North Carolina were compared with teaching effectiveness scores. Teacher effectiveness scores were obtained using the Teacher Performance and Appraisal Instrument (TPAI)--a classroom observation instrument used by a trained team of observers. The TPAI…

Instructional sensitivity indices are compared from four perspectives: (1) criterion-referenced testing; (2) classical test theory; (3) item response theory; and (4) Bayesian theory. Instructional sensitivity is defined as the tendency of a test item to vary in difficulty as a function of instruction. The instructional sensitivity of the items in…

Factors that are most important to institutional effectiveness in the production of black baccalaureates were studied. A further concern was how these factors can be translated into policies and practices for undergraduate institutions that have not traditionally served black students. An effectiveness quotient was developed as an overall measure…

With the use of verbal report strategies, a study was conducted to examine (1) the types of comprehension strategies readers use to process familiar and less familiar texts and (2) the differential use of think aloud strategies by average and below average readers. Subjects were 15 tenth grade male students in upstate New York. Two weeks prior to…

Teaching and learning activities that occurred in large university classes were studied with attention to the extent students are being involved and whether that involvement makes a difference in their attitudes and performance. At the University of Texas at Austin, 19 large (100 students and larger) classes, representing the college of liberal…

Hispanics in the U.S. labor force are the subject of the studies in this volume. After an introduction by George J. Borjas and Marta Tienda, the first three papers focus on the same issue: the determination of wage rates for Hispanics and comparison of Hispanic and non-Hispanic wage rates. Cordelia Reimers compares the situation for Black, White,…

This paper has two purposes: (1) to examine whether Puerto Ricans, non-Puerto Rican Hispanics, and Blacks suffer substantial wage discrimination relative to comparable Whites; and (2) to examine the extent to which employers in the Federal and non-Federal sectors discriminate by race or ethnicity in making wage offers. After a discussion of…

A survey was conducted with 166 undergraduate students enrolled in teacher education and developmental reading classes to determine student background knowledge in three major areas: study and coping skills; current events, geography, and history; and general vocabulary. Among the findings were the following: (1) Students in both groups spent more…

Differences between reporting and classificatory functions in writing were examined in the responses of grade 10 and grade 12 students: 60 who were successful English students, and 60 on the borderline of passing in each of the grades. The reporting tasks required students to write compositions describing their first day in a high school or some…

Although the two countries differ vastly in wealth and resources, Cuba was selected as the second subject in this comparative study of the American effective schools movement and a socialist educational system because of: (1) the successes of the Cuban literacy campaign; and (2) similarities between the racial composition of the two countries. In…

As part of a program in which father-adolescent interactions are videotaped in a search for the determinants of achieving behavior, a sample of 37 father-adolescent pairs were studied as the two worked together while the blindfolded adolescent built a tower of irregularly shaped blocks. Discriminant function treatment of coded analysis of verbal…

To analyze and compare specific oral communication behaviors of primary school pupils who score high on reading and language tests with those who score low, a study was conducted on approximatley 200 students who were classified as (1) high language, (2) high reading, (3) low language, or (4) low reading according to their scores on the…

The continuing perceived complexity of educational systems and the current status of organizational and administrative theory suggest a renewed theory-building effort in the field of educational administration. It is in this sense that this paper presents a heuristic paradigm for the study of educational administration in the Americas, a…

Withdrawing, continuing, and nonreturning undergraduates at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) were compared. Nonreturning students were nongraduating students who completed course requirements but did not return the following semester (25 spring nonreturning students and 47 fall nonreturning students). Data were also collected…

The managerial roles of the university president and the corporation president were compared, and attention was directed to the skills needed by both types of executives and their relationships with their boards. The activities of the chief executive officers of five middle-to-large-sized American organizations were observed for a week. These…