This paper explores a new approach to the evaluation of educational technologies by using Eisner's connoisseurship model. This model has two essential features in program evaluation: holistic approach to the analysis and interpretation of data and multiple perspectives in the evaluative tasks (Eisner, 1998). Using Eisner's model, the key…

Utilizing data from the national administration of a Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) baseline and follow-up survey of the first-year experience during the 2002-2003 academic year, this study explores the relationship between three curricular interventions--first-year seminars, service-learning, and learning communities--and the…

This chapter explores how multiple approaches including data mining can help examine how the lengths of student enrollment are associated with varying numbers of advanced placement units. (Contains 3 tables and 5 figures.)

This case study aimed to generate explanations for the lack of integration of physical activity (PA) promotion in general practices of Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia. This explanatory study adopted a qualitative approach, based on three techniques; focus groups (n = 3), semi-structured (n = 25) and short individual interviews (n = 5). These…

The Kessler 10 Psychological Distress Scale (K10) is a brief 10-item questionnaire designed to measure the level of distress and severity associated with psychological symptoms in population surveys. It is being used widely, including in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Survey, and as a clinical outcome measure, although little…

Narrative data from two earlier studies of adaptation to age-related visual impairment were examined for constellations of stressors and coping styles. In the course of previous qualitative analyses, the researchers identified stress and coping codes according to behavioral, psychological, and social domains using a grounded theory approach. In…

Understanding how immigrants' children form educational expectations may yield insights into the causes of eventual ethnic disparities in socioeconomic attainments. This article examines how the average relative premigration educational status of the immigrant group and the immigrant group's average postmigration SES shape the educational…

The International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) was developed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization in the 1960s and 1970s to be the recognized international standard for reporting and interpreting education program data. Creating a U.S. crosswalk to this system has been a goal of research…

This paper examines the problems caused by relying solely on statistical significance tests to interpret results in contemporary social science. The place of significance testing in educational research has often been debated. Among the problems in reporting statistical significance are questions of definition and terminology. Problems are also…

When comparing the DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) and curriculum conference methods of curriculum development, one finds that the product goals of the two methods differ but the process goals are similar. Both seek to generate information from a select group on which to base curriculum development, but the end product of DACUM is a chart that…

Over the past two decades peoples of Hispanic descent have had an increasing impact on the ethnic, socioeconomic, and demographic features of the U.S. population. This book draws together evidence from the 1980 census, earlier censuses, and other sources to portray the changing position of Hispanics in a complex and multiethnic society. Roughly…

This user's manual provides information for using the "High School and Beyond" (HSB) longitudinal study data file for local labor markets for HSB schools. An overview of the national study is given. Information in the HSB database comes primarily from questionnaires completed by students, school administrators, teachers, and parents of…

This publication contains four lesson plans to assist teachers in instructing their students about the census of agriculture and its uses. Designed primarily for vocational agricultural classes, the lesson plans may also have applications in math, social studies, and journalism or writing classes. Teachers do not need specialized knowledge about…

Overreliance on enrollment figures for comparative analysis of higher education systems may create misunderstanding because data often lump together what is institutionally different, and the notion of "higher education student" may conceal completely different conditions, even within the same sector. (MSE)

Support for the validity of the equipercentile assumption is presented in contrast with the conclusion of Powers, Slaughter, and Helmick (EJ 289 091). Observed "gains" from pre- to posttests are better attributed to stakeholder bias, posttests that match curriculum content too closely, or a combination of these factors. (Author/DWH)