English is a Right Branching Direction (RBD) language in which relative clauses appear to the right of the head noun. In contrast, Chinese primarily relies on a Left Branching Direction (LBD) in which relative clauses premodify the head. Many studies have provided evidence that the differences in principal branching directions between the two…

Efforts to compare the costs of exactly the same things in different geographic regions involve comparisons of the same "market basket" of goods in two geographic areas. Measuring cost differences in education, however, is difficult, since most of the costs are in personnel, rather than in supplies. This publication explains the differences…

This CD-ROM contains data from the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study Second Follow-up Study (B&B:93/97) in the form of a data analysis system that includes most of the variables of interest to analysts. The B&B:93/97 study tracks the experiences of a cohort of recent college graduates, those who received a baccalaureate degree…

Many universities currently encourage the use of online materials to enhance on-campus courses. Assessment of the impact of these technology-enhanced course initiatives is necessary to give insight into the best practices--those that faculty should be encouraged to use based on student need. Assessment studies of this type will enrich the…

The purpose of this study was to examine, describe, evaluate, and compare the rating behavior of faculty consultants who scored essays written for the Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition (AP® ELC) Exam. Data from the 1999 AP ELC Exam were analyzed using FACETS (Linacre, 1998) and SAS. The faculty consultants were not all…

The organization and operations of an evaluation unit in a local governmental agency are presented. How local evaluation units manage (1) external relations (to obtain funding, to gain access to data sources, and encourage evaluation use) and (2) internal operations (including staffing, communication, data collection, and analysis) are described.…

An experimental MBA at Southern Methodist University is described in which the primary learning experience for students involves live projects with business organizations in the local community. A summary of results from research conducted on this program is presented, showing the comparative effectiveness of this program with a traditional one.…

Reviews the history of Studies in Science Education and critiques the role of this journal from a personal perspective as well as from knowledge of the Australian context for science education. Discusses directions for the future. Contains 30 references. (DDR)

Full displays of bibliographic records for 5 monographs were analyzed in 36 library online catalogs and compared with International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD) and traditional catalog-card displays. Sampled characteristics included completeness, visual layout, data sequence, label specificity, and integration of description and…

Describes an interactive computer program written to provide accurate and immediate feedback to students while they are processing experimental data. Discusses the problems inherent in laboratory courses that led to the development of this program. Advantages of the software include allowing students to work at their own pace in a nonthreatening…

Although the American public still upholds its educational system, support has declined during the past decade. Public opinion surveys furnish valuable information about voter attitudes; they are also a vehicle to communicate information to the public. Districts should poll the public regularly to ensure that all client groups remain reasonably…

Faculty from three academic institutions sharing one media center were asked to rank the importance of 14 media center services to higher education. Analyzes the results of the questionnaire, focusing on perceived value and planned use, and discusses causes for the deficiencies: absence of skills and knowledge, incentive, environmental support,…

Discusses which kinds of data educators should respect and which they should reject. Asserts that most state accountability tests fail to produce the kinds of data that will improve teaching and learning. Teachers can get the data they need from their own instructionally useful classroom assessments. (WFA)

Explains human interactive analysis as an architecture for using computer interactive technologies in the analysis of complex work environments. A project at the Naval Training Systems Center that used video-audio data to develop a multimedia database is described; the analysis and management of data are discussed; and decision processes are…

Proposes three types of supplementary problems to develop students' skill in interpretation of graphically represented data. Eleven examples are presented and solved for the following types of problems: comparison of one quantity to another, comparison of two quantities that each depend on a common parameter, and reasonable data prediction. (MDH)