Over the past 25 years, five large-scale research studies of community college students have been conducted in North Carolina, involving cooperation between Duke University, North Carolina State University, and the North Carolina Department of Community Colleges. The different research strategies employed in these studies can be seen as taking one…

This pamphlet provides suggestions for students concerning how to best use and interpret educational research. Students should recognize that there is nothing wrong with questioning research. Among the myths that must be challenged are that if something is published, it must be true, and that scientists are objective and uninfluenced by societal…

Component-building research on practical issues of instructional design can make a substantial contribution to research-based school improvement. Component-building research consists of rigorous within-school experiments that test various components of instruction for effects on student achievement. Research would address practical issues that…

A number of issues involved in the large-scale assessment of science and mathematics education were illustrated during the conduct of two national surveys: the 1977 National Survey of Science, Mathematics, and Social Studies Education and the 1985 National Survey, Science and Mathematics Education. Development of the survey questionnaires started…

The Institute of Family Studies has completed its fifth year of operation; its future development depends on a clear statement of government support backed by sufficient staff and financial resources. This report focuses on current operating difficulties, structure, and achievements and activities of the Institute during the 1984-85 fiscal year.…

The Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools Suspension Project has evolved into three distinct studies: (1) the Discipline Monitoring System (DMS); (2) the experience and behavior of students suspended multiple times in Junior and Senior High; and (3) school suspension rates. This paper reviews/summarizes the findings from the first two…

A review of the voluminous research in the field of teaching at-risk, low achieving elementary school students yields a number of practical, validated applications for classroom teachers. At-risk students should be identified early during their formative years, and social and academic enrichment programs should be implemented as soon as possible.…

The mission of the Mid-continental Regional Education Laboratory (McREL) is to improve practice and increase academic performance in the schools of the seven-state mountain-plains region. McREL's principal approach to the dissemination and utilization of the effective schools research has been training teachers to use research. Based on the…

Interactive research in the area of staff development at the building site level has been conducted recently by the Research and Development Center of the University of Texas, Austin. In this research study staff developers, principals, and resource teachers are given training, research information, and implementation strategies to improve…

The Action Oriented, Reflection Oriented (AORO) observation instrument was designed to help teachers determine their students' cognitive preferences. The assumption underlying the instrument was that learning is enhanced when teaching strategies and materials take into account the student's natural tendency toward action or reflection. AORO…

This booklet contains 29 articles about literacy that originally appeared in newspapers across Canada during September 1987. Many are based on the extensive findings of a national literacy survey of 2,398 Canadian adults commissioned by Southam Inc. The survey provided the first real statistics about the state of literacy in the country;…

To explore themes previously identified among successful schools from the perspective of the school district, this report organizes its discussion of the nine themes developed by T.B. Corcoran and B.L. Wilson (1986) around the role of the central office administration and the ways in which it might cooperate with schools in supporting secondary…

Trends over the past 25 years in research on evaluation of school administrative leadership are analyzed in this summary report. Administrator evaluation became a concern as the principal's influence on the performance and attitudes of faculty and staff was realized. Research on organizational psychology demonstrated the relationship between…

Highlights are presented from 10 critical papers prepared by a panel of experts to describe the relevance of the Statewide Longitudinal Study (SLS) of California community college (CCC) students to each panelist's area of expertise, to identify policy issues or considerations related to SLS data, and to prepare recommendations. The paper begins by…

This sixth collection of research on middle schools is divided into three sections. Section I comprises five research articles, each with a practitioner's reaction discussing the article's implications for practice and suggesting further research. The articles include "Perceptual Styles of Pupils in Grades 5 through 8," by Grover…