Active parental consent policies have been blamed for low participation rates and selection bias (i.e., loss of "high-risk" youths) in school-based studies. In this article, the authors describe active consent procedures that produced an overall active consent rate of 79% in a sample of more than 4,500 middle school students attending 29…

Background: Following the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the NSW Premier, Mr Bob Carr, launched a school-based initiative in NSW government primary schools called the "Gold Medal Fitness Program" to encourage children to be fitter and more active. The Program was introduced into schools through a model of professional development, "Quality…

A core component of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB, 2001) is the provision of free after-school tutoring services, labeled "supplemental educational services" (SES), to eligible students. Importantly, an explicit NCLB requirement makes each state responsible for evaluating individual SES providers with regard to effectiveness in…

Purpose: This study seeks to examine the extent to which the use of career center services results in the significant incremental prediction of career outcomes beyond its established predictors. Design/methodology/approach: The authors survey the clients of a public agency's career center and use hierarchical multiple regressions in order to…

Background: Pay is an important human resource function that has attracted considerable interest within the professional literature and this study addresses pay discrimination. Purpose(s): To address pay for a particular protected group unaddressed in existing literature (Hispanic-surnamed principals). Setting: The setting for this study is public…

In response to recent trends and legislation, the concept of implementing evidence-based practices has become a critical component of contemporary schooling. It is important that teachers and families of students with disabilities understand the role that qualitative research plays in determining whether a practice is in fact evidence based.…

Research in the field of special education often incorporates single-subject designs to investigate the effectiveness of educational practices for students with disabilities. As such, it is important that educators and educational professionals understand the characteristics of single-subject research methodologies and how those characteristics…

By employing a concomitant variable, block designs and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) can be used to improve the power of traditional analysis of variance (ANOVA) by reducing error. If subjects are randomly assigned to treatments without considering the concomitant variable, an experiment uses a post-hoc approach. Otherwise, an a priori approach…

This document includes two presentations on research methods appropriate to research questions involving art classroom settings. "The Nuts and Bolts of Basic Research" (Read M. Diket) outlines the classification systems of research and establishes their basis in purpose and method. Systems represented are: (1) historical research; (2)…

Standard statistical methods are used to analyze data that is assumed to be collected using a simple random sampling scheme. These methods, however, tend to underestimate variance when the data is collected with a cluster design, which is often found in educational survey research. The purposes of this paper are to demonstrate how a cluster design…

Randomization tests have been suggested as a method for analyzing the data from single-case designs. This paper explores three concerns which have arisen: the nonresponsive nature of randomization tests, the appropriateness of specific test statistics and the power of these tests. An example is given to illustrate how partial control can be given…

The popularity of the sample survey in educational research makes it necessary for consumers to tell a good study from a poor one. Several sources were identified that gave advice on how to evaluate a sample design. The sources are either limited or too extensive to use in a practical sense. The purpose of this paper is to recommend six important…

In 1955, R. Levine introduced two linear equating procedures for the common-item non-equivalent populations design. His procedures make the same assumptions about true scores; they differ in terms of the nature of the equating function used. In this paper, two parameterizations of a classical congeneric model are introduced to model the variables…

This study presents several analyses of doctoral dissertation research completed by students in instructional design and technology (ID&T) programs from 1977 through 1988: (1) the number of dissertations completed during each of the 12 years; (2) the 46 U.S. institutions at which the research was done and the number of doctoral degrees in ID&T…

This guide is designed to assist sutdents in preparing a masters thesis or a doctoral dissertation. Part 1 describes the process of preparing a "mini" dissertation proposal, intended to familiarize the student with the dissertation process early in their doctoral program. Part 2 presents examples of dissertation prosposals for: (1) a laboratory…