This response to an article evaluating Indiana's early intervention service delivery (EC 628 669) notes additional important aspects such as the central finance model used, the value of the Indiana data system in tracking the amount and type of services provided, the incentive provided to complete all the Individual Family Service Plan data…

Schools gather, store and use an increasingly large amount of data. Keeping track of everything from bus routes to building access codes to test scores to sports equipment is done with the help of electronic database programs. Large databases designed for budgeting and student record keeping have long been an integral part of the educational…

Extending inquiry-based learning to allow students to develop their own questions and design and perform their own experiments can greatly enhance education. Students gain an appreciation of how knowledge is acquired and insights into evaluating data. Although easily applied to laboratory courses, the technique is also applicable to lecture…

It would be kind to say that the U.S. Department of Education (ED) was dawdling in its analysis of the data on charter schools that were collected by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). ED collected the data with the regular NAEP assessment in 2003 and placed the regular data on its website in the fall of 2003. The American…

The science notebook is more than a record of data that students collect, facts students learn, and procedures students conduct. It is also a record of students' questions, predictions, claims linked to evidence, conclusions, and reflections--all structured by an investigation leading to an understanding of "big ideas" (not factoids) in science. A…

Participation in dinner table conversations offers children opportunities to acquire vocabulary, practice producing and understanding stories and explanations, acquire general knowledge, and learn how to talk in culturally appropriate ways. (Contains 1 table.)

This chapter discusses the continued need for--and civil rights implications of--research on community colleges and Latino educational opportunity.

In March 2003, a total of 394 media specialists throughout the state of Kentucky completed an online survey regarding the professional development needs. The public relations subcommittee of the Kentucky School Media Association Board of directors generated the questions and collected data from the three parts of the survey-demographics,…

In this article, Mary Kellett, of the Children's Research Centre at the Open University, draws on case study evidence to illustrate how an 11-year-old girl's quality of life was transformed in the last few months before she died when an Intensive Interaction intervention approach was adopted. The study raises issues about the way we respond to…

Recent legislation has produced a dramatic rise in the detention and removal of immigrants from the United States. Drawing on interviews with a random sample of Salvadoran deportees, we examine treatment during arrest and detention. Our findings indicate: (1) deportees are often subject to verbal harassment, procedural failings and use of force;…

This qualitative study examined how participation in an extensive all-female wilderness program challenged conventional notions of femininity for adolescent girls. Interviews were conducted 4 to 5 months and 15 to 18 months after completion of a 23-day canoe expedition. Additional data collection included a focus group, a public presentation,…

This paper is a report of the development of a systematic process for locating instructional design alumni and recruiting them to provide feedback from their workplaces. The purpose of initiating this process is related to program improvement through alumni participation. The process for tracking, contacting, and gathering data from alumni is…

As the principles and practices of quality assurance are further implanted in higher education, methodological questions about how to understand and manage quality become increasingly important. This paper argues that quality assurance determinations need to take account of how and to what extent students engage with activities that are likely to…

Many nations' governments are requiring schools to bring about significant, systematic, and sustained change to improve student outcomes in all settings, and have imposed mandates to ensure that schools are providing quality education and running efficiently and effectively. Consequently, national and state testing programs, standards-based…

We developed a novel variation on classroom data collection by having students conduct a national research project. Students at 20 different colleges and universities measured "school spirit" at their institutions according to several operational criteria (school apparel wearing, car stickers, alumni donation rate, ratings by a major sports…