Two innovative methods for collecting and analyzing qualitative data are vignettes and pre-structured cases. Vignettes are descriptions of situations or problems written by a professional, with a suggested outline and comments provided by a researcher. Advantages of this method are strength of impact of the written descriptions and efficiency of…

An investigation of how some school districts construct and maintain needed links between evaluation/testing and curricular/instructional activities is presented. Researchers must build on the twin strands of research about school and school district organization and developments in testing, evaluation methodology. School district characteristics…

The data entry quality control procedures in discrete data entry tasks in the National Longitudinal Study (NLS) Fourth Follow-Up Survey are examined. Direct data entry terminals were used to key survey questionnaire item responses, telephone interview corrections, respondent background information and supplemental questionnaire responses into…

MICROPIK is a multiple-alternatives, criterion-referenced model for evaluating CAI (computer-assisted instruction) software and microcomputer hardware against selected curricular objectives. The model provides decision-modeling control over diverse interactive patterns that occur when computer hardware, courseware, and instructional objectives are…

Decreasing fiscal budgets and declining student enrollments have forced many school districts to evaluate the alternative strategies in closing certain elementary or secondary schools, either temporarily or permanently, for purposes of consolidation. For rural and other small districts, the strategy of multiple district consolidation (merger) has…

A Teacher Survey was developed for administration to Illinois teachers whose students take the Illinois Inventory of Educational Progress (IIEP). The IIEP are the achievement tests of the state assessment program. The purposes of the Teacher Survey range from determination of a test's curricular validity to investigations of teachers' abilities to…

For teaching to improve, three factors must be in place. First, the college must use a valid and reliable student evaluation instrument in combination with other feedback mechanisms. Second, there must be an accompanying norming report that provides comparative and diagnostic information to departmental chairs and teachers. Raw data from even a…

The effects of religion and religiosity as measured by attendance at weekly religious services on the demand for private schooling is assessed. It is shown that Catholics, fundamentalist/evangelical Protestants, and respondents who attend religious services more often have a higher demand for private schooling. Data from the National Opinion…

The major purpose of this study was to provide a current, descriptive data base regarding teacher education in Illinois. A two-part survey was conducted to collect data. The first part required administrators of teacher preparation programs to identify the number and types of distinct teacher preparation curricula at their respective institutions.…

This document presents proceedings of a 1976 conference on the assessment of teaching competence in special education teachers. The concerns identified for discussion were: (1) instruments for assessing interpersonal competencies in preservice special education students; (2) instruments for assessing teaching competencies in noninterpersonal…

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) simulation employed three techniques: case study, role playing, and model building, in order to acquaint college students studying money and banking with the creation of monetary policy. The specific goals of the FOMC simulation were: (1) to familiarize students with the data used in monetary policy…

This paper reviews the question of the cost and benefits of data for the analysis of state policy questions, and concludes that in the abstract the question cannot be answered; rather, it must be considered on a continuing basis whenever data is to be collected in the support of baseline studies or special projects. The paper suggests six criteria…

Physicians, psychologists, and anthropologists have developed procedures and models for preparing case studies that meet the needs of their profession. In the field of educational evaluation, procedures for conducting student case studies are not readily available. Although case studies, consisting of descriptions of exemplary educational…

Research on 128 children is presented as evidence of the superiority of a new clustering measure (X) over a more traditional "chance clustering" measure (sigma) as a means of organizing material to be learned to facilitate recall. X is shown to meet three criteria for a measure of a developmental process: X is more highly correlated with recall…

The original impetus for this monograph was a grant from the New Jersey Basic Skills Council of the New Jersey Department of Higher Education to evaluate two college basic skills remedial programs (one in a four-year state college, one in a two-year community college) and to produce a handbook for conducting such evaluations. This monograph is…