If we let all students at Ithaca College be our population, then our Office of Institutional Research can provide us with various parameters about this population. For example, we can obtain parameters regarding SAT scores, birth month, and GPA. Each student samples from the population and we compare their results to the parameters. This allows us…

This paper explores the issue of how educational psychologists (EPs) deal with emotional and behavioural difficulties (EBD) referrals. Self-reported EP practice is highlighted and discussed using data gathered from a survey of EPs ( n=107) drawn from 16 local education authorities. Data relating to the age and gender of students referred, the…

Stories are seductive, persuasive, permeable. They pull one toward them and they may even take over. From the tapes and transcripts of interviews, from the pages of journals and student writing, certain stories called out to this author and his colleagues. The narratives they include in their work are not innocently or objectively chosen stories;…

While numerous approaches exist to gather information from families having cultural and linguistically diverse backgrounds and who have children with developmental disabilities, the use of assistive technology (AT) focus groups holds great promise for professionals. This article provides an overview of a process that can be implemented in school…

The purpose of this chapter is to synthesize the results of the studies presented in this monograph and to discuss the implications of those results. The chapter is divided into four sections. In the first section state level assessment as a reform mechanism for high school physical education is discussed in terms of the South Carolina experience.…

Achieving student participation, it has been argued, is one of the most important challenges in distance education. This explorative study examines whether a synchronous communication medium, instant messaging (IM), may enable students to participate more actively in online group work. When comparing two groups that adopted IM with two groups that…

Data from parents and young adults were collected as part of a 20-year follow-up of children with developmental delays who had been identified at age 3 years. The young adults and their parents provided information through questionnaires and personal interviews. Findings documented a broad range of outcomes, with some young adults leading…

We introduce family researchers to the Occupational Information Network, or O*Net, an electronic database on the work characteristics of over 950 occupations. The paper here is a practical primer that covers data collection, selecting occupational characteristics, coding occupations, scale creation, and construct validity, with empirical…

In 2004 the Australian Flexible Learning Framework developed a suite of quantitative and qualitative indicators on the uptake, use and impact of e-learning in the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector. These indicators were used to design items for a survey to gather quantitative data for benchmarking. A series of four surveys gathered…

It is important to be able to describe instructional practices accurately in order to support research on "what works" in education and professional development as a basis for efforts to improve practice. This report describes a project to develop procedures for characterizing classroom practices in mathematics and science on the …

The "2004/06 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:04/06)" is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education to respond to the need for a national, comprehensive database concerning issues students may face in enrollment, persistence, progress, and attainment in postsecondary education and in consequent early rates of…

This article discusses walk-throughs as a valuable source of instructional data for teachers and administrators. Data gathering and analysis can be a dynamic and exciting process when walk-throughs are incorporated into a school's improvement plan as an instructional snapshot. At Norris High School in Firth, Nebraska, the principal uses…

Purpose: The objective of this article is to provide an analysis of articles in "Education Administration Quarterly (EAQ)" over the 25-year period 1979-2003. Approach: The approach is document analysis. Findings: Information is presented on four key themes: (a) types of articles published; (b) methodologies employed; (c) topic areas emphasized;…

This fourth edition of the "ES Review" brings together, in one setting, some of the best work from 2009-10. It features: (1) Teacher Quality (Teachers at Work: Improving Teacher Quality Through School Design (Elena Silva); Understanding Teachers Contracts (Andrew J. Rotherham); How Teachers Unions Lost the Media (Richard Whitmire and…

This report represents the deliberations of the Pacific Regional Advisory Committee (RAC), one of 10 RACs established under the Educational Technical Assistance Act of 2002 to assess the educational needs of the region. The committee's report outlines educational needs across the state, districts, and territories of Hawai'i, the Commonwealth of…