This study addresses attrition in the teaching profession, a major problem in Florida's schools. The study's target population was a random sample of 10% of the teachers from a Florida metropolitan school district employing 5,500 teachers. Data were gathered through a mailed questionnaire--the Survey of Teacher Characteristics and Activities. The…

A school improvement model intended to facilitate the implementation of a new mathematics curriculum in a large heterogeneous school district is described. The model is based primarily on the concepts and components of the Concerns-Based Adoption Model, and it includes theory and research findings from recent studies involving the role of the…

Six best-selling introductory behavioral statistics textbooks that were published in 1982 and two well-known sampling theory textbooks were reviewed to determine the presence of rules-of-thumb--useful principles with wide application that are not intended to be strictly accurate. The relative frequency and type of rules are reported along with a…

An exploratory study of the value of ridge regression for interactive models is reported. Assuming that the linear terms in a simple interactive model are centered to eliminate non-essential multicollinearity, a variety of common models, representing both ordinal and disordinal interactions, are shown to have "orientations" that are favorable to…

A survey of instructional, administrative, and policy-level personnel who participated in needs assessment studies in 12 Florida school districts revealed several problems in the use of the discrepancy model in needs assessment. Nine of the district studies focused on instructional needs, such as basic skills or early childhood education; two…

A generalizable systems-based needs analysis model was developed to help school district testing and evaluation offices evaluate current problems with their information processing systems and identify additional computer capabilities required to upgrade their systems. The model contains four main phases, namely: definition of the department…

Same-year and same-grade comparisons were made of a matched sample of students who had been retained in kindergarten for a second year and who had been promoted after 1 year from kindergarten within the Pasco County (Florida) School System. Retained subjects (n=34) consisted of kindergarten students enrolled in the system's developmental…

This exploratory study evaluated the effects of using word processors to aid fourth- and fifth-graders in developing writing skills. The study focused on the Developmental Writing Program of the Hillsborough County (Florida) School District. A pre-study assessment indicated that, although students wrote well, they were reluctant to revise and edit…

The career expectations of 200 randomly selected preservice teachers (143 females and 57 males) were examined to determine differences associated with gender, socioeconomic status (SES), and academic achievement (as indicated by grade point average). The study was conducted at the University of Central Florida (Orlando) from 1986 to 1987. Subjects…