This manual provides guidance and documentation for users of the eighth-grade data of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 1998-99 (ECLS-K). It begins with an overview of the ECLS-K study. Subsequent chapters provide details on the instruments and measures used, the sample design, weighting procedures, response rates, data…

The present situation in Nigeria involves students of fine arts, a practical-oriented subject, being exposed to poor methods of teaching with consequent poor performances. This study examined the extent to which the use of a computerised graphics package could make the classroom technology-oriented and affect the performance of learners. This is…

When attempting to determine if an intervention has a causal impact, the "gold standard" of program evaluation is the randomized controlled trial (RCT). In education studies random assignment is rarely feasible at the student level, making RCTs harder to conduct. School-level assignment is more common but this often requires considerable resources…

The study was conducted to find out the attitude of students towards the use of cooperative, competitive and individualistic learning strategies in Nigerian senior secondary school physics. The design selected for this study was quasi-experimental. A total of 140 students took part in the study and they were selected by a random sampling…

This study examines the validity and reliability of the Perceptions of Adequacy of Resources inventory--developed for American society--in a sample from Turkey and determines the correlations between perceived adequacy of resources and selected socioeconomic and family composition characteristics in Turkey. Participants of this study consist of…

The influence of communication on student discipline in secondary schools is an issue of continued debate in Kenya. This study was necessitated by the growing concern by education stakeholders in Kenya over the rising reports of student indiscipline in secondary schools. The study utilized qualitative approach with questionnaires, interviews and…

Putting data-driven decision making into practice requires the use of consistent and reliable data that are easily accessible. The systematic collection and maintenance of accurate information is an important component in developing policy and evaluating outcomes. Since 1982, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has been collecting…

Communities That Care (CTC) is a prevention system designed to reduce adolescent substance use and delinquency through the selection of effective preventive interventions tailored to a community's specific profile of risk and protection. A community-randomized trial of CTC, the Community Youth Development Study, is currently being conducted in 24…

Through this study researchers sought to evaluate the effects of qualification on instructional delivery modes of practicing preschool teachers in Nigeria. The sample consisted of 93 preschool teachers and 2,859 pupils aged 4 to 5 years. Schools were selected through stratified random sampling to ensure adequate representation of private, public,…

The purpose of this paper is to provide a typology of sampling designs for qualitative researchers. We introduce the following sampling strategies: (a) parallel sampling designs, which represent a body of sampling strategies that facilitate credible comparisons of two or more different subgroups that are extracted from the same levels of study;…

Hilton (2006) criticises the PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) tests and the survey conduct, raising questions about the validity of international surveys of reading. Her criticisms fall into four broad areas: cultural validity, methodological issues, construct validity and the survey in England. However, her criticisms are…

Humans and animals learn from experience by reducing the probability of sampling alternatives with poor past outcomes. Using simulations, J. G. March (1996) illustrated how such adaptive sampling could lead to risk-averse as well as risk-seeking behavior. In this article, the author develops a formal theory of how adaptive sampling influences risk…

The "PISA 2009 Technical Report" describes the methodology underlying the PISA 2009 survey. It examines additional features related to the implementation of the project at a level of detail that allows researchers to understand and replicate its analyses. The reader will find a wealth of information on the test and sample design,…

Three issues need to be decided in the design stage of a longitudinal intervention study: the number of persons, the number of repeated measurements per person, and the duration of the study. The degree to which polynomial effects vary across persons and the drop-out pattern also influence the statistical power to detect intervention effects. This…

Sampling experiments utilizing field portable instruments are instructional since students collect data following regulatory protocols, evaluate it, and begin to recognize their civic responsibilities upon collecting useful data. A lead-in-soil experiment educated students on a prevalent exposure pathway. The experimental site was a pre-1950…