Reports results of an investigation assessing the value of selected leadership competencies in three administrative areas (technical skills, conceptual skills, human skills) to the practicing elementary principal and perceived by elementary principals, superintendents, and teachers in Maine public schools. Notes differences between teaching and…

Examines setting-culture interaction as a force contributing to the real or imagined ineffectiveness of vocational programs for American Indians on or near reservations. Uses a program serving the Mississippi Band of Choctaws as a case study to discuss potential effects of setting-culture interaction on program design and evaluation. (SB)

Introduces the process by which Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) review proposals for research involving human subjects. Describes the composition of IRBs. Presents the Nuremberg code, the elements of informed consent, the judging criteria for proposals, and a sample protocol format. References newly published regulations governing research with…

Reports a study examining perceived effectiveness of the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service's delivery of educational information to rural residents, based on the attitudes, participation, and knowledge of 252 flue-cured tobacco producers. Notes the surprising difference in the scores of large and small tobacco producers and the service's…

Describes the National Assessment of Educational Progress Model and outlines and advocates its application in research on rural social studies. Notes its usefulness in assessment situations. Explains how the model will produce data descriptive of a target population and will permit the comparison of local and national results. (SB)

Addresses problems, such as the relationship of needs to the availability of services, encountered by rural officials in conducting needs assessments of community services and notes their implications for policy makers. (SB)

Reports a project that used simulated master schedules as an alternative to grade-level, subject-matter, classroom-group organization of instruction in small schools. Describes a multigrade, multicourse learning center approach that decouples the course = class equation and allows small schools to offer a stronger educational program. (SB)

To determine to what extent instructional efforts differed between men and women at a large land-grant university, the following variables were investigated: number of weighted student credit hours, number of sections taught, number of different courses taught, and didactic hours by level course. (Author/MLW)

Nonprofessional employees in three administrative units at a comprehensive eastern university served as subjects in a study to examine the relationships of perceived participation in decision making, communication with supervisor, employee characteristics, and employee job satisfaction. Implications for personnel decisions and training, employee…

Evaluations of widely used computer simulators identify a number of technical and organizational factors that are related to the simulator's success. Two aspects of organizational behavior that previous investigations have ignored--myth and ritual--are identified, and cost simulation models and a discussion of their evaluation are provided.…

A statistical methodology applied to three years of teaching load data from 21 major public universities yields an objective, broadly applicable set of student credit hours (SCH) weight factors. A table of optimum weighting factors for upper division and graduate SCH is presented. (Author/MLW)

Seven institutional research maxims based on research and theory about how people cognitively process information are discussed: more may not be better; augment humans with models; chunk data wisely; know decision-makers; heuristics are not always helpful; arrange tables by patterns; and accept negative evidence and new hypotheses. (Author/MLW)

In a study of college student retention and progression, significant differences were found between black and white students in terms of their attrition rates, overall progression rates, and tendency to follow the prescribed progression pattern. When other student and institutional characteristics are statistically controlled, racial differences…

Following six years of across-the-board internal budget reallocations, Penn State initiated a rolling five-year planning and budget process. It provides for more selective budgetary decisions based on careful analysis of university priorities. (Author/MLW)

The informational and analytical bases by which Yale University sets tuition levels and long-term pricing policies are illustrated. The rising cost of private higher education is discussed, considering historical trends, inflation, the institution's financial condition, comparative costs from other schools, and effect on enrollment. (MSE)