Most studies either concentrate on situational variants or relate specifically to differences in interpersonal relationships involved. Therefore, difficulties arise in setting up control groups, the timing of post-measurements, and the use of varied intervention techniques. Dilemmas are caused by focusing on projected, rather than on desired,…

Evaluation of ongoing educational programs must necessarily differ from the basic research design; it must change to meet the changes of the program and its environment. Over the three years of the operation of the Philadelphia "Let's Be Amigos" bilingual program, the kinds of data generated in the program evaluation have evolved in response to…

Techniques of sociological research--defined as the assembly, organization and interpretation of facts that help explain human activity--are described in this guide to community research strategies. In Part I of the booklet some basic aspects of research are examined, illustrating procedures of stating and examining a research problem. The scope…

The data and findings of a four-year study designed to organize a battery of psychological tests for assessing the vocational adjustment of adult deaf and to establish the validity of the individual tests, as well as provide some information regarding their most economic and productive potential use, are presented. The study population was all…

The purpose of this study was to measure the effectiveness of a monolingual versus a bilingual approach to the education of second-grade, Spanish-speaking children in New York City. The results were determined by measuring achievement in reading, which showed that the bilingual approach was indeed the more effective. The report includes an…

The cost and funding studies project of the proposed Western Interstate Bibliographic Network began activities in July 1975. To support the development and implementation of western interstate bibliographic network capabilities, the project concentrated on the collection of cost data in western libraries, the impact of network services on…

The relationship between social studies preference and other subject matter preferences of elementary children over a two-year period is analyzed. A forced-choice test requiring students to rank order five basic subjects was administered to 75 pupils in randomly selected third-grade classes. Students represented the socioeconomic structure of an…

This report begins by considering the design of compensatory education evaluations. A professional evaluation of Elementary Secondary Education Act Title I must make a precise accounting of the relations among expenditures, implementation, outcome and impact; measure effectiveness over a long enough term to determine if the benefit and gain last;…

Examines the methodological procedures of expert systems being used in reading research. Identifies four methodological techniques: (1) intact group comparisons, think-aloud protocols, retrospective analysis, and naturalistic inquiry. Notes internal validity threats for each type, and recommends longitudinal descriptive studies on poor readers to…

Sums up the current status of rural education research, offers explanations for the present situation, and argues for two essential steps in developing a rural research and development agenda: adoption of overarching research paradigms to guide future inquiry and consensus concerning the substantive issues to be studied. (JHZ)

Describes a survey of 356 adult students enrolled in university-level courses at the Open Learning Institute which was conducted to assess the predictive validity of Tinto's theoretical model of student dropout. It was found that, overall, the Tinto model appears to be a useful framework for such investigations. (Author/LRW)

During one week in 1981, 648 telephone reference questions were analyzed at medium-sized public library. Subject-oriented question analysis revealed little relationship between subject of question, answer format, and complexity level; significant correlation appeared between answer format and level of complexity. Sample coding form and statistical…

Outlines the foundations of the qualitative and quantitative approaches to research and discusses the implications of these two completely different approaches in educational research. Points out they are not complementary as they are separate scientific paradigms.(MD)

The major goals of this two-semester seminar are to help first-year graduate students understand the links among perspective, theory, assumptions, problem formulation, methods, and findings in psychological research and to optimize their transition into the PhD program. The seminar is described and evaluated and suggestions for change are made.…

Discussed are the assumptions which underpin research studies of the effects of pupil, school, and local education authority characteristics on student achievement in Great Britain. The purpose is to clarify the necessary limitations on knowledge imposed by various research methods and to suggest how these might be improved. (RM)