Educators are bombarded with data from all directions, but to effect change in the education field, they must be able to determine what key information and data are needed, understand how to use what they have learned from the data, and then use what they have learned to improve overall student achievement. Collecting and using data has become an…

Introduction: Evidence-based medicine (EBM) integrates published clinical evidence with patient values and clinical expertise, the output of which is informed medical decision making. Key skills for evidence-based practice include acquisition and appraisal of clinical information. Faculty clinicians often lack expertise in these skills and are…

Young children's learning--and how their learning is distributed by social background--may be influenced by the structural and organizational properties of their school. This study focuses on one important structural dimension of these educational contexts: "size." This study differs from extant studies linking size to student outcomes in four…

With the enactment of Title IX in 1972, sports participation by female athletes in intercollegiate sports has generally increased, while leadership positions have decreased. The data summarized in this paper represent 15 years (1977-1992) of information on the status of women in intercollegiate athletics gathered in an on-going national study of…

The application of mathematical programming techniques is extended to the construction of measurement instruments in generalizability theory. Key concepts in generalizability theory are explained and a description is given of: (1) the one-facet crossed design; (2) the two-facet crossed design; and (3) a two-facet nested design. The optimization of…

Magnitude of effect measures (MEMs), when adequately understood and correctly used, are important aids for researchers who do not want to rely solely on tests of statistical significance in substantive result interpretation. The MEM tells how much of the dependent variable can be controlled, predicted, or explained by the independent variables.…

This paper describes ethnosociology and provides an application of this interpretive research model in dealing with problems in rural special education. The expansion of rural special education knowledge should begin with discovering and elaborating on special education knowledge at the local theory level. Such inquiry would be based on the…

Concern over the validity of statistical tests performed on data that may not satisfy underlying assumptions has prompted methodological researchers to perform Monte Carlo studies for frequently used tests. Unfortunately, these studies appear to have had little impact on methodological practice. One reason is the lack of an overarching framework…

Exercises were developed using tornado statistics to provide students with a better understanding of the spatial and temporal characteristics of these phenomena in the United States. Four categories of exercises were considered beginning with the simplest and progressing to the more complex. The first set of exercises required students to…

Differences in science achievement between males and females have been examined either directly or indirectly in a variety of studies. This investigation reviewed a quantitative synthesis of correlational research on science affect, ability, and achievement conducted by Steinkamp and Maehr. Their findings were reassessed by employing a…

In response to a frequently articulated call for "ecological" validity from instructional communication investigations, this paper reports on methodological issues which evolved during the development and application of a coding scheme for content analyzing teacher compliance-gaining messages. Starting with a consideration of the…

The purpose of this study was to examine the variable of estimated earnings in order to determine how forecasts might be utilized to develop a securities portfolio strategy. The hypothesis stated that there is an inverse relationship between projected change in earnings per share and security performance. Ninety-one New York Stock Exchange…

Explores content or contextual validity of social rule classifications produced by sample of 12-year-old child coders. Analyses of variances revealed that categorization schemes generated by child coders were contextually valid as determined by raters' mean ratings. (Author/RWB)

Huggins' report lacks serious data collection on college Black Studies Departments, omits the strongest ones, fails to record their history accurately, and does not assess the research achievements of its scholars. Huggins overlooks the importance of applying an Afro-centric perspective to phenomena related to people of African descent. (PS)

The article examines: (1) the relationship between group membership and the production of knowledge; (2) comparative versus non-comparative research; and (3) the structure of data interpretation for Afro-Americans versus Euro-Americans. At issue is the lack of blacks involved in the National Research Council's study of blacks. (PS)