In response to the need for data on higher education faculty and instructional staff, the National Center for Education Statistics conducted the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF) in 1987-88 and 1992-93. Both cycles of the NSOPF consisted of an institutional component and a faculty component. The earlier study surveyed only faculty…

This report compares estimates of selected data from the two components of the 1993 National Household Education Survey (NHES:93), the School Readiness (SR) survey and the School Safety and Discipline (SS&D) survey, with data from other surveys and published sources. The two different components cover a variety of topics related to education,…

This report, the third in a series, contains the results of an evaluation of the definitions and internal consistency of the finance variables used in the Federal State Cooperative System Public Library Statistics (FSCS/PLS) program, and a comparison of the statistics collected for these variables to selected statistics from independent sources.…

A study was conducted by the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) to examine transfer rates for state community colleges using methodology developed by the national Transfer Assembly (TA) and analyses conducted by the SBCTC. While the TA examines outcomes for students with no previous college credit who complete at…

This paper describes a pilot study emphasizing responsive research and incorporating the views of participants into recommendations for future research using classroom videotaping. The study was based on the sociocultural theory of Vygotsky (1978), which emphasizes the importance of an integrated perspective of child language and thought.…

This paper conceptually explains higher-order factor analysis and methods for interpretation. A review of first-order factor analysis is presented that provides the foundation for the summary of second-order factor analysis. Higher order factors are derived from the correlations between the lower-level factors. An example study is provided to make…

Father presence, as a paradigm, is a rich and complex construction of father roles, family functioning, and fathers' relations to children's development driven by functional, psychological, and affective aspects of parenting extending beyond physical and fiscal boundaries. This review critiques extensively the voluminous father-absence literature…

This document is the final performance report for a Field Initiated Studies (FIS) project that addressed the need for a better assessment of public library services for adult lifelong learning in majority-minority and lower income library market areas. After stating the major educational problem addressed by the FIS project, the report lists the…

A study of school effectiveness for language minority students, authored by Virginia Collier and Wayne Thomas, is criticized as having two serious flaws. The first is that its methodology is a simple descriptive cohort analysis, seen as unscientific and producing misleading results because: each grade consists of different students; the number of…

Celebrating Marie Clay as a major theorist of child literacy acquisition, this book presents 15 essays by distinguished scholars that reflect on her contributions to the field of early literacy; early childhood, bilingual, and special education; developmental, cognitive, and school psychology; assessment; teacher education; professional…

This paper is a brief account and argument for using Built Environment Education Workshops (BEEWs) as a data collection method. The research is based on women of African descent and the connections among their social practices, the spaces that generate them and are generated by them, and the language they use to mediate and/or negotiate those…

A study was conducted for the Office of Educational Research and Improvement directed toward research priorities that would further progress toward high achievement for all students. The study focused on three topics, each addressed by a panel: (1) strengthening the capacity of research for contributing to educational improvement; (2) critical…

This paper focuses on the reasons why media violence research is often misunderstood. First, it explains the methodological limitations of studying media violence and argues that these limitations are similar to those accepted in medical research. Second, it explores the role of emotional response that media violence can produce and possible…

This document aims to support graduate students who are in the process of preparing graduate theses or dissertations, and is organized according to the planning, research, and writing phases. The function of theses and dissertations is to provide students with experience in conducting and presenting research and to add to the body of knowledge in…

Reports a study attempting to test the hypothesis that Mexican-American students' cliquishness is related to their minority status, and that this may be tested in schools by comparing variance in achievement. (Author/JM)