This document describes the techniques and assumptions used by the National Center for Education Statistics to prepare the statistical projections used in the center's reports, and it presents many of the resulting projections in tabular form. The report covers projections in key areas of educational statistics, including enrollments, high school…

Chapter One of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act (ECIA) distributes compensatory education grants on the basis of a formula that considers population and cost factors for each of the nation's 3,128 counties. The focus of this report is the effectiveness of that formula in meeting the stated purpose of the legislation to provide aid…

The importance of myth and ritual in understanding the use of computer simulators in higher education is considered. Myths are commonly held beliefs that maintain social solidarity and reduce ambiguity; rituals serve a similar function, but they involve actions in addition to words. Examples of common myths and rituals are used to illustrate the…

An institutional self-study undertaken by Appalachian State University as part of the accreditation process is presented. This 13-stage analysis forecast societal trends and value shifts and established institutional goals for the 1980s. The study was based on a 10-stage "Futures Creating Paradigm" developed by the American Association…

Directions for college teaching were assessed, based on ratings of 10 "megatrends" identified by John Naisbitt. The study questionnaire summarized the 10 megatrends and provided scales for rating the probability of the trends occurring and their potential impact. Responses were obtained from Marquette University faculty of the College of Business…

In light of shortages of mathematics and science teachers, alternative certification was introduced in the mid-1980s. This study examined the effect of alternative certification among math and science teachers who moved to a different school or left the profession. This was accomplished using the national "SASS" and "TFS"…

Because the achievement battery traditionally administered to Brazilian college bound students may discriminate against those who cannot afford to attend the best high schools or preparatory courses, tests were developed to measure aptitude for higher education, independent of ability or actual knowledge of course content. The focus of the…

A model of student attrition was synthesized from psychological, sociological, and educational sources, and contains six sets of variables: background, organizational, personal, environmental, attitudinal, and intent to leave. The model was tested with 1,909 full-time and unmarried university freshmen at a major midwestern university. The sample…

A study was conducted by Los Angeles City College (LACC) to measure the academic achievement of 103 day and 34 evening students enrolled during Fall 1980 in Developmental Communication 20, a course in basic reading and writing skills. During the study, five measures of academic achievement were recorded for each student: first- and last-week…

This study finds that the women's movement has had a significant impact in expanding the outlook and changing the attitudes of American women. According to this representative survey of 1,552 women, American women perceive their roles as either traditional, balancing, or expanding. The traditional outlook, generally shared by women over 50, views…

Talents Unlimited (TU) is an educational program based in Mobile, Alabama, and developed under an Elementary Secondary Education Act Title III grant. The program was validated nationally over three years and is now part of the National Diffusion Network. Six areas of talent were identified: productive thinking; forecasting; decision making;…

Reflections on past and future uses of intelligence tests are presented. Three current approaches to intelligence tests are described: (1) neural efficiency, which relates the speed or quality of functioning of the neural system to test results; (2) information processing--cognitive micro-processes used in solving test items; and (3)…

In response to a need for refined methods of appraising the potential of prospective Manpower Development and Training Act (MDTA) trainees, this study was conducted to determine if descriptive data about trainees being gathered by the employment service, such as personal information and General Aptitude Test Battery scores, are effective…

The Trouble-Shooting Checklist (TSC) is an empirically-developed, descriptive instrument which is based on the responses of six educational change agents. It enables an agent to predict a given institution's success in adopting innovations by ordering its levels of concerns and innovation usage. It focuses on two types of innovation:…

The first section of this manual contains a selective review of organizational change literature which focuses on predictive institutional variables as they affect the adoption-diffusion process. The second section describes the development of the Trouble Shooting Checklist (TSC). The third section presents two Trouble Shooting Checklists (TSC-A…