Students knowledge and skills cannot be fully understood without assessing the ways they are influenced by other aspects of postsecondary education. These aspects are described in a "map" consisting of points that depict the flow of students through institutions and experiences from precollege to adulthood. (Author/MLW)

A study is reported of how students in an honors program and a transition program for academically disadvantaged students, as well as students in the regular curriculum, become engaged in a variety of experiences and how their quality of effort in the activities is related to student growth and development. (Author/MLW)

The research on college students published between 1969 and 1983 in 11 periodicals was used to examine the substantive topics and research methods preferred by male and female authors. Gender differences persisted over the 15 year period and became sharper after 1975. (Author/MLW)

Quality of a faculty member's graduate department origin and its relationship to test construction was examined. Findings indicated a tendency for faculty holding advanced degrees from higher quality graduate departments to ask more synthesis questions. (Author/MLW)

Comparative analyses reveal different corporate priorities and giving agendas in the United States and Canada that signal the need for unique approaches to fund raising in each country. U.S. firms have sponsorship agendas that follow established priorities and are programmatic in nature, unlike Canadian companies whose support has varied…

The bibliometric "laws" formulated by Bradford and Lotka are applied to citations in papers on higher education, with results suggesting that the concepts of the laws may have applicability to examination of the discipline. This kind of examination has implications for the means by which scholarship is communicated. (Author/MLW)

Finds most successful students in University of Alaska-Fairbanks rural field-based teacher-education program over a three-year period show worst performance when conventional standards for course completion are applied. Reviews implications for innovation and change in higher education. (NEC)

Discusses three realities used in constructing knowledge and their traditional research methodologies as basis for proposing a research agenda/methodology for rural education. Proposes use of conceptual empiricism and contextual appraisal of self, class, school, and schooling. Suggests currere (self-introspection technique), hegemony, and…

A survey of higher education programs found that nine of the programs offer an area of concentration in institutional research and 17 programs have an institutional research core course. These programs are identified and the content of the curriculum is described. Planning topics received the most emphasis in courses. (Author/MLW)

Logistic regression was employed to analyze predictors of academic performance (academic dismissal versus satisfactory performance) for first-time freshmen after one semester in an eastern state university. The analyses indicated that academic performance was highly related to high school academic grade point average. (Author/MLW)

When gauging the adequacy of faculty compensation, few institutions take steps to prevent the skewing of averages owing to differences in cost of living, differences in distribution of faculty in academic year and 12-month appointments, and differences in the configuration of the faculty over disciplines. (Author/MLW)

Executing surveys is one of the most common activities of institutional research and one of the least served in institutional research literature. Survey research as practiced in institutional research faces special technical problems and challenges not embraced in much of the general-survey research literature. (Author/MLW)

Faculty collective bargaining contracts were analyzed at institutions of higher education that had a history of collective bargaining to determine whether contracts negotiated in 1975 significantly differed from those negotiated in 1985 with regard to academic items including employment decisions, teaching load, nonteaching responsibilities,…

Uses responses of 77 teachers from eight Illinois rural high schools to 36-item survey to assess amount of time students devote to homework; existence of school homework policy; purpose and type of homework assignments; teacher review, feedback, and grading of homework; and value and significance of assigning homework. (NEC)

Presents results of survey of 53 representatives of teacher-training institutions offering gifted education programs. Reports over 60 percent believed differentiation of education for rural gifted teachers was necessary, with greatest need being in areas of program development, curriculum development, and identification. (NEC)