In most interest inventories, a single stimulus item is presented and the respondent indicates a preference in terms of degree of like, dislike, or indifference. This approach provides normative scales with scores that may be compared with various group distributions. The forced choice of options adds to the score on the scale for option selected…

The Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP) is a welfare reform initiative based on enhancing welfare recipients' incentives to get a job and requiring long-term welfare recipients to participate in employment-focused activities. The effects of the MFIP were compared to those of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program through…

A comparative study examined the extent of growth in overall writing quality of college freshmen to determine whether feedback from the instructor during planning and the composing process (especially on the computer) was more effective than another instructor's feedback during conferences on each final, graded writing product in the students'…

A joint study was undertaken by the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) and Montgomery College (MC), in Maryland, to determine the characteristics of MCPS graduates enrolled at MC and patterns in their developmental course placement. Data were collected for 13,575 MCPS graduates from 1992 and 1993 who enrolled in regular semester terms within…

This study compared parent and nursery staff perceptions of preschool children. Perceptions were examined from one parent and two caregivers for each of seven children. Aspects of the child's perceived personality and response to learning were also investigated, as were the expectations and judgments brought to the situation by each adult. In…

The interaction needs and performance of distance learners in synchronous and asynchronous classes were compared in a study of 313 students enrolled in 16 distance education courses at Iowa State University in 1995 and 1996. The courses were offered through traditional face-to-face classroom instruction, over the Iowa Communications Network (ICN),…

This guide is designed for students and other individuals intending to live or study abroad and learn about another culture or cultures. These individuals are encouraged to acknowledge and come to terms with responses, particularly negative ones, to aspects of the culture they are visiting. An introductory chapter discusses the general process of…

On average, unemployed U.S. citizens remain jobless for much less time than their European counterparts do. The relatively low level of unemployment in the United States is attributable to two factors: a social protection system that offers far less protection than those in Western Europe do and a broad range of job openings. The fact that…

The validity of the notion that welfare receipt is equivalent to "dependency" and work represents "self-sufficiency" was examined in a qualitative study during which 214 recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and 165 low-wage single mothers in 4 U.S. cities were interviewed. The women were contacted…

This study examined the hypothesis that children who had participated in a full-day kindergarten program would not show a significantly higher academic achievement in first grade as measured by the standardized portfolio assessment than children who participated in a half-day program. The study compared four portfolio assessment scores of two…

A study examined the degree to which children with limited English proficiency can benefit from English instruction in phonemic awareness and phoneme-grapheme correspondence. Subjects were 27 kindergarten children in a suburban northern California school--16 spoke Hmong as their primary language and the rest were monolingual English speakers. The…

The experiences of tech prep students who have made the transition from high school to some form of postsecondary career-oriented education were examined through a survey sent to 38,325 postsecondary students enrolled in 1,948 programs in 362 postsecondary institutions in 14 states. Nearly 90% of those surveyed were under the age of 25. Compared…

Project AFFIRM (African-American First Investment Return Module) was established at Evergreen Community College in fall 1989 as a comprehensive academic and support program to help African-American students achieve their college transfer or associate degree goals. AFFIRM courses have the same content as traditional courses, but utilize…

Elementary education majors at Emporia State University (ESU), Kansas, were subjects in a research project designed to administer, analyze, and interpret a variety of quantitative and qualitative measures of two groups. An experimental group consisted of 16 interns placed at one of two professional development schools (PDS) that ESU operates in…

This report distills hundreds of indicators from both domestic and international sources to determine how the United States compares to other countries and to its own past performance in competitiveness. It attempts to establish a baseline of some key education and training indicators that, taken together, show where the nation stands and where it…