This "Handbook" offers a broad definition of family and community engagement, seen through the lens of scholars and practitioners with a wide-ranging set of perspectives on why and how families, communities, and schools collaborate with one another. Taken together, the chapters in this "Handbook" sketch out the components of a…

HyperCard is a general-purpose program for the Macintosh computer that allows multiple ways of viewing and accessing a large body of information. Two ways in which HyperCard can be used as a research tool are illustrated. One way is to organize and analyze qualitative data from observations, interviews, surveys, and other documents. The other way…

Educational assessment concerns inference about students' knowledge, skills, and accomplishments. Because data are never so comprehensive and unequivocal as to ensure certitude, test theory evolved in part to address questions of weight, coverage, and import of data. The resulting concepts and techniques can be viewed as applications of more…

Differential item functioning (DIF), or item bias, occurs when individuals in a focal group respond differently to a test item than do individuals in a reference group even when comparisons are restricted to individuals with similar overall skill levels on the trait in question. It is common in constructing a questionnaire or survey to recommend…

Each publication in the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse (ENC) Focus series presents a small selection of the Clearinghouse collection focused on a topic of particular interest to mathematics and science teachers. In addition to meeting general requirements for inclusion in the ENC collection, curriculum materials in the Focus series are:…

This study examined characteristics of 73 equine degree programs in the United States, the training and duties of their department chairpersons, and their budgetary processes. Analysis of data from questionnaire responses revealed a large variety of equine degree and minor programs, with annual budgets ranging from $2,000 to $757,200. Public…

This book is intended to explain principles of qualitative research to potential researchers and to provide them with a set of tools, and guidelines for critical thinking as they carry out such research. The chapters are organized around the elements of the research process which require decisions. Following an introductory chapter, Chapter 2…

This study investigated how 8 secondary school students coped with the task of choosing their own problems for a 9-week course in an alternative school in Ithaca, New York. The students chose a theme to be investigated before the class started, collected real data on the theme, and if they felt the need for it, analyzed it using Function Probe, a…

This manual, developed in an effort to take the mysticism out of program evaluation, discusses six phases of the program evaluation process. The introduction discusses reasons for evaluation, process and outcome evaluation, the purpose of the handbook, the evaluation process, and the Sequoia United School District Dropout Prevention Program. Phase…

This study reanalyzed data collected by Heymans and Wiersma in 1908 in response to a questionnaire sent to secondary school teachers in the Netherlands. The 81-item questionnaire asked teachers about the characteristics of the behavior and character of their students (numbering close to 4,000). The reanalysis involved 72 questions that provided…

The Multiple Option Observation System for Experimental Studies (MOOSES) is a flexible data collection and analysis package for applied behavioral research that addresses the needs of researchers interested in live coding of observational data. MOOSES allows the researcher to design a coding system for a particular research question. General types…

In the field of child and family programs, a needs assessment, which is essentially a fact-finding exercise, can be conducted either by focusing on a particular program or by examining a population of interest. In conducting a needs assessment, it is important to be systematic, be clear about the information which is sought, be specific about the…

The Pearson product-moment correlation, r, is commonly applied in educational research. Almost all researchers realize that r ranges between -1.00 and +1.00, and that negative coefficients indicate that the bivariate relationship is inverse. Researchers also recognize that the Pearson r only evaluates linear relationship, and is not sensitive to…

This paper presents a grounded theory study that developed an explanatory theory of influences on teachers' use of classroom discussion. This paper further suggests that grounded theory of this sort should be useful for studying the persistence of recitation under the guise of discussion and for improving instruction with classroom discussion.…

Occupational norms exist for some tests, and differences in the distributions of test scores by occupation are evident. Sampling error (SE), situationally specific factors (SSFs), and differences in job content (DIJCs) were explored as possible reasons for the observed differences. SE was explored by analyzing 742 validity studies performed by the…