The Utah Career Ladder System was evaluated, in an effort to provide policy options for Phase II of the Career Ladder implementation in Utah and present policy recommendations. Five major data collection efforts were made: (1) analysis of district career ladder plans from 1985-86 through 1987-88; (2) a telephone survey of Utah's 40 superintendents…

A 1985 mail survey of 97 rural schools and 53 coastal (urban/suburban) schools in Queensland, Australia, investigated teacher characteristics, problems, and needs. Respondents included 504 rural teachers, 215 rural parents, 405 coastal teachers, and 179 coastal parents. The results confirm many previous findings about teaching in rural Australia.…

A preliminary model was developed for predicting mail survey response rates of college bound high school students using student demographic and academic ability data. Two samples of high school juniors and seniors who took the American College Testing (ACT) Assessment between October 1987 and February 1988 were selected. One sample (n=810)…

Austin Community College mailed an Employee Satisfaction Survey in spring 2000 to 2,903 employees. The survey form asked respondents to rate college-wide and/or campus services that they had requested or received during the past year in terms of promptness, quality, attitude and overall service. The overall survey return rate was 15.4%, but rates…

Educational research has long been conducted at a distance: both mail and telephone have successfully been used in survey research. The development of the Internet offers yet another medium over which research can be conducted. This study discusses the use of electronic mail as a vehicle for conducting educational research. It focuses particularly…

Mail questionnaire items that are susceptible to order effects were examined using data from 168 questionnaires in a Florida Cooperative Extension Service evaluation. Order effects were found for multiple-response and attributive questions but not for single-response items. Order also interacted with question complexity, social desirability, and…

The proposition that teacher perceptions of the fairness of their workloads are related to varying levels of commitment, job satisfaction, and morale was studied for 472 high school teachers. Results from the mail survey support the proposition. Implications for administrative practice are discussed. (SLD)

Alternate reasons for conducting program evaluation in community health care (CHC) settings and their relationships with information needs were explored in a survey of 136 CHC decision makers. Major reasons for conducting program evaluation included accreditation, true evaluation, and pseudoevaluation. Information needs were predictors of true…

Two studies evaluated college student response rates to mail surveys. One found that enclosure of raffle tickets improved response rates but only for students living in campus housing. The second study showed that nonrespondents who were telephoned before receiving a second questionnaire mailing were more likely to respond. (Author/MSE)

Comparison of three methods of surveying employers concerning quality of employees' college education suggests a mailed survey for graduates and employers can be effective if the graduate's permission for contacting the employer is obtained on the initial questionnaire and if employers must differentiate among listed job characteristics and…

A survey of 24 members of school-level transition teams in four rural school districts examined the effectiveness of teams and barriers to transition success. Results support the need for improved postschool case management and follow-up services. Results also show a strong relationship between written transition policy and procedures and…

Satisfaction with health care was assessed for 4,794 pre-open-enrollment and 3,624 post-open-enrollment college faculty and staff using measures with general and personal referents and reference to the last physician visit. Prediction of intention to change health care is discussed. Stated intention to change was not a good predictor of actual…

To determine local educators' responses to being targeted for program improvement, questionnaires were sent to principals of all schools identified for Chapter 1 improvement in three states. Approximately 104 (84 percent) of the responding schools supported the legislative provisions for improvement and could focus on the issues of improvement.…

A pilot study assessing parent satisfaction with mental health services for children was a disappointment in its low response rate (28%, 15 of 53 questionnaires). However, the questionnaire, the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire, was an easy to use and effective tool that identified some sources of dissatisfaction. (SLD)

The objectives of this research were to test deficit and resilience models of adult students' experiences by: (1) determining the relative influence of chronological age and age stress on their academic performance and campus comfort; and (2) considering earlier educational experiences and social support in relation to their performance and campus…