Diane Ravitch has emerged as one of the most powerful forces for real education reform. She is a tireless crusader against the baseless claims that drive current educational policy and a clear-eyed visionary of what needs to be done. While at one time she left the educational community and then returned (both of which she addresses in this…

Since becoming an educational researcher in the late 1980s, Gregory Marchant has struggled with the disconnect between what is known from educational research and what is practiced in educational policy. In fact, his dissertation looked at support for practices identified through the process-product effective teaching research from elementary and…

Our intention in this article is to present one institution's efforts to take on program assessment and respond to calls for accountability. To do so, the teacher education program simultaneously sought to address the narrowly defined measures called for by policy makers and politicians, while at the same time broadening and expanding…

Reviews clinical and empirical research on functional analysis of behavior, presenting landmark studies in the development of functional assessment, noting implications of functional analysis assessment for schools, and explaining that legislation mandating the presence of children with disabilities in general education classes and discipline…

Evaluated the impact that an association with the Teachers College of a midwestern university had on student achievement at schools designated as Professional Development Schools (PDSs). Data were collected from the state mandated achievement test and from ratings of the PDSs. Comparison of PDS and non-PDS sites showed no significant differences…

Discusses how past human struggles have been funneled into multicultural education, offering an explanation for why it was inevitable that the term multicultural education would first appear in the United States, discussing the development of multicultural education since the 1960s, and presenting a theoretical perspective and framework for…

Educational research courses are generally viewed as unnecessary requirements by education students. In an attempt to change this attitude, a new course design based on expected student competencies was implemented at Wichita State University. Student attitudes and attitude changes were measured with positive results. (JMF)

If the education profession is to improve, the gap between educational research and the classroom teacher must be narrowed. Most educational theory is based on empirical research generated by logical deduction, but naturalistic research provides more innovative and flexible methods for collecting explanations of learning behavior. (MT)

"First Lessons," a government-sponsored report on the status of elementary education in the United States, points out that elementary schooling remains quite good and discusses several characteristics such as student composition, curriculum content, administration, promotion policies, and class size. (CB)

Reasons why teachers do not use educational research are summarized, and an interactive research and development project aimed at overcoming utilization problems is described. In the project, teachers, staff developers, and Texas Tech University researchers worked collaboratively to study problems and concerns of classroom teachers. (PP)

The author reviews American education from World War II to the mid-1970s, identifying seven major developments and briefly discussing 20 innovations. (MT)

An outline of the characteristics of exemplary schools is presented in a discussion of the effective schools movement. Research on the implementation process of a pilot program explores a plan for school improvement. A view of effective school research and school improvement from a political perspective is offered. (DF)

A study investigated the relationships among the grades students received in a general methods course and selected variables. The conclusions indicated that: (1) Women tend to make higher grades than men; (2) Older students register for fewer credit hours than do younger ones; and (3) Upperclassmen register for fewer hours than do lowerclassmen.…

A study examined the effects of recency of teacher training (in the implementation of set induction techniques) and class size on high school student achievement and on short-term and long-term retention. Results are reported and presented in tabular form. (CJ)

Aptitude test scores of education majors at Florida Atlantic University who demonstrated poor writing abilities were compared to determine ability differences between those who graduated and those who did not. Graduates outscored dropouts in the five major areas tested, although both groups ranked low in comparison to the general college…