Quality Performance Accreditation (QPA), as mandated by the Kansas State Board of Education, requires schools to document student learning through multiple assessment strategies and requires students to participate in state-developed assessments in reading, writing, mathematics, and science. The Kansas National Education Association has joined…

This report provides a brief review of literature on at-risk students and implications for a study being conducted by the Pacific Region Educational Laboratory (PREL). The study aims to identify factors that put students at-risk of failure within the present system of public high schools in the Pacific region. Although numerous studies present a…

This paper summarizes a study that assessed the effects of an extended case study that focused on wetland issues with seventh and eighth grade students. The extended case study is an instructional methodology that incorporates the issue investigation/evaluation and action training model. A modified pretest-posttest nonequivalent control group…

Mastery learning research focuses on learner-oriented and instruction-based factors that relate the concepts of time as a variable and high student achievement as a constant. This research emphasis encompasses optimistic assumptions about the capability of students to learn if: (1) alterable variables are optimized, and (2)…

The international vocational education research collaboration between the University of Jyvaskyla (UJ) and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VPISU), which began in 1993, was studied. Information for the case study was gathered from questionnaire and interview data from linkage participants from VPISU, seven UJ researchers, and…

This paper discusses stereotypical racial beliefs among the second and third grade Hispanic children. The study developed after several students displayed stereotypical beliefs in discussions about other ethnic groups and interactions with members of other ethnic groups. The paper examines research from the 1930s to the present. This examination…

A survey was conducted of 280 teachers and principals in east-central Ontario (Canada) to investigate what variables best predict educators' attitudes toward local applied research. The four dependent variables were purpose of local research, attitudes toward participation in research, utility of research, and support for research activity. Eight…

Since the mid 1960s a number of affluent white schools, both public and private, have made efforts to include low-income students of color in their student bodies. Data on the attainment, professional status, and income of these students do not address the ambivalence many experience in white middle-class institutions. Those who have examined the…

The third year of the contract, 1993-94, was one of culminating activities for the Region F Technical Assistance Center (TAC), as well as a year for preparation for reauthorization. The TAC continued to provide assistance that focused on improving curriculum and instruction across all aspects of Chapter 1. A significant change was the increase in…

Research was undertaken to determine whether technology education had moved from theory into practice in the United States. To make meaningful national comparisons, a comparative model was developed to determine the philosophy, implementation organization, and implementation processes of technology education. The model was used as a table of…

This document presents results of research to investigate bias and fairness in apprentice selection procedures used in South Africa. Chapter 1 discusses the aim of the project and summarizes the report's contents. Chapter 2 presents a brief overview of the contents of five interim reports. "Investigation of Apprentice Evaluation Procedures…

A great deal of attention has been focused on adult literacy by policy makers, employers, unions, and state and federal government. An increasing body of work is challenging conventional assumptions and values related to literacy. The National Literacy Act of 1991 has the potential to develop an essential long-term infrastructure. Some basic…

The question examined in this paper is: what is known exactly about variables that affect long-term retention of knowledge learned in school? U. Neisser (1982) asserts that "it is difficult to find even a single study, ancient or modern, of what is retained from academic instruction." Further, popular belief holds that much of the knowledge…

The training of researchers in the educational technology field has continued in the traditional vein of the experimental paradigm. This document describes a workshop presented to balance that training and to prepare students to undertake research in a non-traditional way. The workshop aimed to acquaint students with non-causal naturalistic…

Research conducted by the National Research Center on Student Learning (NRCSL) is reviewed as it moves toward a new understanding of learning and instruction. Research by the NRCSL into the kind of learning demanded by modern life has been shaped by the understanding, based on earlier research, that knowledge is actively constructed in the mind of…