Three basic designs for studying college student attrition are described and the comparative assets and liabilities of each are discussed. It is noted that administrators faced with declining enrollments and costs for students not completing degree programs are likely to call for attrition studies, yet methodological inadequacies exist in many…

The extent to which research training is needed by Master of Public Administration (MPA) graduates at the University of Oklahoma, Advanced Programs, was investigated through the administration of a questionnaire to 38 August 1977 MPA degree recipients. The questionnaire contained 13 questions concerning where the student took most of his courses;…

This brief report summarizes the analysis and conclusions presented in detail in Interim Report VI regarding the feasibility of conducting a longitudinal study of Project Developmental Continuity (PDC). This project is a Head Start demonstration program aimed at providing educational and developmental continuity between children's Head Start and…

This document contains chapters 4 and 5 of the final report of the Project on Social Architecture in Education. Chapter 4 provides a brief overview of the activities of the project in order to sketch the context out of which the case studies, conclusions, and learning materials emerged. Chapter 5 discusses and evaluates six major strands of…

This paper considers the problem of differentiating thought and language in a way that makes it possible to relate them to each other. The analysis covers approaches of sociolinguistic research, different models of language and cognitive functioning within psychology and linguistics, the cybernetic approach, and psycholinguistic analyses. A common…

Conventional approaches to program evaluation have followed the experimental and psychometric traditions dominant in educational research. Their aim (unfulfilled) of achieving fully objective methods had led to studies that are artificial and restricted in scope. Illuminative evaluation is introduced as a total re-appraisal of the rationale and…

THIS 3-PART RESEARCH REPORT DISCUSSES SYSTEMATICALLY THE NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES, ANALYZES THE PROBLEMS THAT FACE SCHOOLS, AND OFFERS SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVING PROGRAMS. AFTER REVIEWING THE HISTORICAL FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE NEW EMPHASIS BEING PUT ON LANGUAGES, PART ONE SUMMARIZES SUCH DEVELOPMENTS AND TRENDS AS THE…

THE RESEARCH COORDINATING UNIT ADVISORY COMMITTEE, COMPOSED OF REPRESENTATIVES FROM MANY AND DIVERSE COMMUNITY, OCCUPATIONAL, AND EDUCATIONAL GROUPS, MET TO IDENTIFY RESEARCH PROBLEMS OF A PRIORITY NATURE IN VOCATIONAL AND TECHNICAL EDUCATION. THEY MET IN SMALL GROUPS DURING THE 1-DAY SESSION. MAJOR PROBLEMS WERE IDENTIFIED AT THE SECONDARY AND…

The vocational education program needs of the nation's large cities were assessed by a mail survey of vocational educators in 106 major urban centers. Several procedural problems in generating appropriate instrument content and initial problems in obtaining data from respondents were encountered. Goal and objective statements generated through a…

The objective of this monograph is to contribute to the further understanding of the knowledge-production-and-utilization process. Its primary focus is on a model both general and detailed enough to provide a comprehensive overview of the diverse functions, roles, and processes required to understand the flow of knowledge from its point of origin…

Four types of control groups are commonly used in cognitive manipulation studies: (1) no-treatment; (2) practice with own methods; (3) practice and training with competing treatments; and (4) practice and training with irrelevant treatments. There are problems associated with the use of each group as a baseline for identifying the "true"…

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a model of the psychological processes that take place when a persuader decides to use or not to use a given persuasive message. The assumption is made that if the perceived emotional impact of a message is more positive than an ethical threshold (which varies from person to person), the persuader will use…

Budgetmaking and bargaining are central resource allocation processes in schools; this study examines how they affect one another. Ethnoscientific techniques were applied in nine Illinois school systems. The results were analyzed to show the flow of the decision process and construction of detailed plans of action. The structure and power…

Threats to the validity of the Title I Evaluation and Reporting System are covered in two parts: an annotated bibliography of reports concerned with technical issues, and a discussion of threats to validity--from the reporting system in general and from each model in particular. Threats common to all three evaluation models are reported:…

Based on the premise that the major emphasis in population education should be on the development of problem analysis and values clarification, the manual offers guidelines for program evaluation. It consists of eight chapters. Chapter I discusses the nature of educational research and in-school and out-of-school population programs. Chapter II…