A survey of 447 visitors to a Kansas zoo examined adult visitors' motivations for themselves and companions. In another survey, 118 zoo educators nationwide predicted visitor responses. Educators' predictions were fairly good for visitors' educational and recreational motives for attendance, less accurate for their social orientation, and poor…

This report describes essential characteristics and key program outcome measures for the Student Support Services (SSS) program grantees and participants in reporting years 2002-03 and 2003-04. The SSS program is designed to increase college persistence and graduation rates for eligible students, increase the transfer rates of eligible students…

Taking an international comparative perspective, the paper seeks to identify conditions that favour or impede participation in continuing higher education (CHE), and to answer the question what lessons can be learned from other countries. To this end we present selected findings of a secondary analysis of data from seven countries and…

The retention of older respondents in a longitudinal study is of important concern to data quality and representativeness of the target population. Participant non-response has been considered a more serious problem among older persons than among younger ones, since dropouts in longitudinal studies of older adults have been reported to be less…

This position paper was written to answer a series of basic questions frequently asked about attrition and retention at Empire State College (ESC), New York. The questions addressed in the report are: (1) What is the attrition rate at ESC? (2) How does ESC's attrition rate compare to other colleges? (3) Who are the leavers? (4) When does attrition…

A study examined the characteristics and experiences of school dropouts who participated in training programs authorized under Title IIA of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). The data were obtained through the quick-turnaround portion of the Job Training Quarterly Survey (JTQS) and were extracted from service delivery area administration…

A nationwide survey of online searchers at 150 college and university libraries was conducted to explore various characteristics of this group. From a sample of 380 searchers representing 85 libraries, 201 surveys (52.9%) were returned, and 198 responses were usable. Variables examined include online training, searcher experience, professional…

A survey of 200 Iowa rural public libraries serving a population of less than 2,500 was conducted in 1984 to determine reference service characteristics. A total of 137 libraries responded to a survey modeled after a questionnaire developed by Bernard Vavrek for a 1981 nationwide survey. It was found that the number of full-time staff members was…

A persistent problem in the evaluation of field-based projects is the lack of no-treatment comparison groups. Frequently, potential comparison groups are confounded by socioeconomic, racial, or other factors. Among the possible methods for dealing with this problem are various matching procedures, but they are cumbersome to use with multiple…

This report sought to identify, describe, and compare the characteristics of technical assistance as they related to the process of meeting the New York State Department of Education mandate for the establishment of performance based teacher education programs (PBTE). Research questions dealt with (1) the knowledge levels of participants regarding…

Employees of a large data processing corporation participated in a study designed to determine differences on a series of innovation variables between and among employee participants and nonparticipants in a technology inventory program. Three employee groups were distinguished: employees who participated in the technology inventory program, those…

The English and Spanish utterances of 19 bilingual preschool children were monitored as they conversed with experimenters. Characteristics of the children's language are reported for a bilingual prestage (exhibited by the youngest subject) and for four developmental stages in English and Spanish. These stages are characterized by approximately…

The following information on the development of the 1978 Metropolitan Achievement Tests (MAT), fifth edition, is given; the purpose and importance of item analysis, steps preceding item tryout, characteristics of the sample population, and data obtained. Item analysis allows elimination of undesirable items, adjustment of the difficulty level of…

THIS DOCUMENT IS SECTION 1 OF A 3-PART REPORT BY THE EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE. THIS SECTION DESCRIBES, IN EXTENSIVE STATISTICAL TERMS, A SAMPLE OF 445 HEAD START CHILDREN IN TERMS OF THEIR SCORES ON (1) THE STANFORD-BINET L-M, (2) THE CALDWELL PRESCHOOL INVENTORY, AND (3) THE PROJECT HEAD START BEHAVIOR INVENTORY. THE SAMPLING PROCEDURES USED…