To assess the condition of American education in the next decade, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) should focus on collecting data in the following major areas: (1) the quality and quantity of time that is allocated to various activities in the classroom; (2) the concerns of teachers, including their working conditions and time…

Staff and residents of settings for the aged often hold substantially different views of their shared environment, and the literature suggests that these perceptual discrepancies transcend such factors as degree of institutional totality, quality of care, and differences in personal characteristics among staff and residents. Despite the…

This edition of the Role of Market Forces program note suggests empirical and descriptive analyses required to complement new areas of health policy emphasis and direction. Eight areas and related questions involving health economics are outlined: (1) rural health care; (2) medical malpractice and insurance; (3) supply, productivity, and…

A collection of essays on current issues in the field of second language proficiency assessment includes: "The Unassimilated History" (Pardee Lowe, Jr.), which chronicles the development of proficiency testing; "A Research Agenda" (John L. D. Clark and John Lett), a discussion of research considerations and needs in proficiency testing; "Issues…

This paper discusses findings from the first two years of a 6-year longitudinal study related to the recruitment, training, and retention of quality students into teaching. The paper highlights the importance of developing "adequate indicators" to guage our conceptions of quality and provides selected, standardized instrument data from the study's…

Provided in this annual report, the 10th of a series, are the texts of four papers presented at a preconference workshop on new directions for infancy research. The papers focus on the middle European contribution to infancy research, main themes in European research on infant perception and cognition, an innovative therapeutic approach to…

The major purpose of this study was to describe community college child care centers in terms of selected operational and physical features. It was expected that findings would provide answers to the following questions: What child care provisions exist on selected community college campuses? How do those child care centers serve their respective…

This document contains a paper on strategic planning for regional economic development by David Passmore, and reactions to it from the 1988 Mid-Year Meeting of the University Council for Training and Development. Papers contained in this proceedings are as follows: "Strategic Planning of Employment and Training for Regional Economic…

This chapter considers the social and cultural implications of instructional development, and suggests that the success or failure of a project can best be predicted from improvements in relevant social analysis combined with a competent technical analysis, rather than formal analytic and evaluative analyses alone. Recent developments in the…

The types and number of faculty cases litigated and reported at state and federal levels for the 1982 calendar year are examined. Each case is reviewed for the basic facts, the underlying legal rationale, the data requirements, and the decision of the court. It is noted that categorical data summaries were developed of the cases and the associated…

A review of computer assisted instruction research and recent meta-analytical reports suggests that all research on the learning benefits of the instructional uses of computers should be halted until there is a plausible reason to expect that computers are instrumental in learning, since all existing evidence indicates that computers do not yield…

Some meanings of the term "loose coupling" are offered, and ties between it and other concepts used to describe organizations are suggested. One research program designed to measure the degree of coupling in schools through survey methods is described, and the methodological and substantive results of that work are summarized. The paper…

This report provides an illustrative discussion of the nature of a cost-effectiveness study in a higher education setting. It focuses on the cost-effectiveness of two field-based teacher preparation courses taught in a college of education. It is not a comprehensive cost analysis study, but an exploratory review of the dimensions and problems of…

Crucial, technologically oriented issues currently facing educators are addressed in the following 11 articles: (1) "The Definition of Educational Technology: An Emerging Stability," by Donald P. Ely; (2) "Media Applications to Instruction: Current Theoretical Considerations," by Gerald M. Torkelson; (3) "The Dilemma of…

A three-stage developmental model of the socialization of altruism as a reinforcer was tested. The model posits mood as a mediator of helping behavior. The first stage of the model is characterized by a relatively low level of altruistic responding, regardless of mood state, among preschool children; the second by the acquisition, among…