Examines whether the apprehension and perceived victimization risk of undergraduate students reading news reports depicting frequency of increases in threatening phenomena would be lowered by exposure to stories portraying population increases. Shows that the presentation of relevant population data can lessen the apprehensiveness associated with…

Asserts that journal's three studies examining cultural influences on emotional development reflect Western cultural model, using Western scripts for how data were collected and meaningfulness attributed. Addresses: (1) search for universals versus cultural specificity; (2) effect of unit of analysis; (3) whose perspective is used when proclaiming…

Presents an interdisciplinary activity that combines math and science and enhances cooperative learning skills. Enables students to learn about the scientific method by designing an original research project, collecting and interpreting data, and drawing conclusions based on their research. (JRH)

Twenty-four meta-analyses in mental retardation, learning disabilities, and emotional/behavior disorders were reviewed and analyzed across six domains of information necessary for securing face validity of published meta-analyses. Wide variations that could influence summative results were found. Additionally, temporal analysis of 44 meta-analyses…

Parents are increasingly drawn into school improvement as a key strategy to enhancing student achievement, but parents' understanding of their role is not well documented. This case study illuminates three Alberta (Canada) mothers' perspectives on the meaning of school improvement and their experiences within the provincially funded Alberta…

In the last decade, voluntary efforts by firms to reduce their environmental impacts have received increasing attention from both policymakers and scholars. This article discusses polluters' incentives to reduce their releases. In particular, using data from Canada's National Pollutant Release Inventory, it examines the impacts of conventional…

Title III of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLBA) designates federal funds to support the education of students with limited English proficiency and provides for formula-based grants to states. This report describes the data the Education Department used to distribute Title III funds and the implications of data measurement issues for the…

This paper analyzes trends in education expenditures in elementary and secondary schools, especially the extent to which special education costs are responsible for the overall upward expenditure trends. It reports on the limited national data available and on a longitudinal analysis of special education costs in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from 1982-83…

Many students view statistics as their worst college course. Four heuristics that can improve students' proficiency in statistics and in interpreting reports of research are presented in this paper. The heuristics guide students' judgments about significance, generalizability, cause-and-effect, and strength of independent-dependent variable…

This paper presents findings from an historical investigation of visual literacy, a unique aspect being that the approach relied on the marriage of two disciplines--geography and history--which study change over time. Maps and their interpretation of data by cartographers tend to provide a foundational context that can illuminate past and present…

This manual presents 12 guidelines to help teachers of students with mental retardation make more informed decisions about instruction by gathering and using student performance data. Development of the guidelines incorporated both teachers' recommendations and researchers' findings about what procedures work best, and guidelines were tested in…

This report explores the effects of teacher professionalization on elementary and secondary teachers in the United States. The analysis examines the relationships between a set of characteristics traditionally associated with professions and professionals and teachers' commitment to their teaching careers. The report focuses on the following…

This book offers guidelines for action research, a process in which teachers experiment with various strategies at the classroom level. Action research is the process of systematically evaluating the consequences of educational decisions and adjusting practices to maximize effectiveness. Essentially the examination of one's own practice, it…

This booklet addresses the difficulties of comparing and drawing meaning from dropout data prepared by different agencies, and examines the characteristics of students--and of schools--that place students at risk for leaving school prematurely. The booklet describes prevention programs and presents evidence on their effectiveness. It reviews…

A model of graph comprehension is proposed including perceptual and memory processes. Multidimensional scaling (MDS), cluster analysis, and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to determine how college students with different mathematical experience read different types of bar graphs. Data were collected at the University of Oklahoma (Norman)…