"Developing and Assessing an Online Research Writing Course" discusses how the Writing Program at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) created a hybrid, online research writing course, Writing 50, and assessed that course. The assessment, which is at the center of this piece, was dovetailed with assessment literature in…

The racially-based academic achievement gap demonstrates that schools are not equally successful with all students. There are gaps in discipline; placement in remedial, gifted, and honors classes; assignment to special education programs; grade point averages; dropout and graduation rates as well as in funding and resources. The elimination of…

This study examined practices of teachers in Wake County Public Schools' (WCPSS) middle school Algebra I classes. Regression analyses of standardized state testing results allowed for identification of the most effective and least effective Algebra I teachers. The study used surveys, observations, and focus group interviews to compare and contrast…

The Blueprint for the Future program began in 1989-90 in 20 pilot schools in the Scarborough school system in Ontario, Canada. School support teams were established and the role of special-education resource teachers (SERT) was expanded through inservice training. Focused group interviews with principals and SERTs were conducted to determine…

This report is a review of development education and the black and ethnic minority communities in Great Britain. The development education movement in the United Kingdom has been based on producing resources, training, and support to the deliverers of education, whether teachers, youth workers, or community organizers. A feature of the movement…

This paper explores a facet of the organizational implications of an Afrocentric perspective in American education, primarily in public schools. It also explores, through two focus groups, the perceptions of 10 African-American school administrators and 10 teachers in a graduate education supervision class. The focus groups made it clear that the…

This paper describes the successful use of student focus groups by the University of Wisconsin--Whitewater Student Health Center to assess marketing strategies for alcohol abuse prevention. The focus group is a group of 13 students who met several times with a facilitator to share perceptions, feelings, and attitudes about alcohol abuse…

A survey of 3,600 teachers by the National Center for Early Development and Learning (Pianta et al., 1999; NCEDL, 1999) found that teachers were concerned about children's transitions to school. Teachers reported that almost half (48 percent) of children entering kindergarten had moderate or serious problems adjusting to the new experience. These…

This book is intended as a resource and an indispensable companion to welcome educators into the community of social science research. While it is recognized that some methodological frameworks are incompatible with others, the overarching premise of the book is to indicate how a wide range of researchers choose a methodology and methods which are…

Existing research on student employment focuses on the impact of work on persistence and degree attainment. This study, however, pays special attention to how work affects students' college experience. Blending quantitative and qualitative methods, the study examines the difference between working and nonworking students in their academic and…

An instrument was developed to investigate the study behavior of high school students. Based on the Study Behavior Inventory (Bliss and Mueller, 1986), a measure designed to examine the study behaviors of college students, the Study Behavior Inventory-High School Version was developed through the contributions of 10 focus groups of high school…

This study explored how the governance leadership of Ohios urban school districts views and deals with major governance issues related to student achievement. Five sets of issues were chosen as the focus of the research: (1) the recruitment, selection, retention, and evaluation of Ohio urban superintendents of schools and school district…

This qualitative investigation studies the impact of belonging to a high school Gay/Straight Alliance (GSA or Alliance) on the lives of seven students in a Salt Lake City (Utah) high school. Individual and focus group interviews were conducted over a 2-year period. The researcher/author used voices of gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and straight students…

The mission of the National Center on Fathers and Families (NCOFF) is to improve the life chances and well-being of children and the efficacy of families by facilitating the positive involvement of fathers. Seven core learnings, developed in 1994, are at the heart of NCOFF's agenda for research, practice, and policy, and a framework for the field.…

Northern Virginia Community College (NVCC) conducted a telephone survey and two focus groups to determine why students who enrolled for the first time during fall 1999 did not return for the following spring 2000 semester. The main reasons that 557 telephone survey respondents gave were that approximately: (1) 17% had either transferred to another…