Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This conceptual paper lays out a framework for improving educational practice in areas with many low performing schools. School districts will be argued to be the primary actor of reform. Centralized management organized around education science programs (Raudenbush, 2008) and continuous improvement efforts, the preferred reform technology. Cognitive and organizational theory will be used to create a theory of routine school improvement to guide this work.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper summarizes what systematic evidence exists about the performance of the American voting process in 2004 and proposes a comprehensive system of performance measures that would allow citizens and officials to assess the quality of the voting system in the U.S.

Despite the great deal of attention paid to voting reform from 2000 to 2004, and billions of dollars spent, there is surprisingly little systematic evidence of improvement in how elections are conducted in the United States. The best evidence of improvement comes in assessing the overall quality of voting machines that were used, and here the news is good. Nonetheless the measures used to assess voting machines could be greatly improved. There is little systematic, nationwide evidence of whether registration problems declined, polling places were administered better, or whether voter tabulations were more accurate.

In thinking about how to improve data gathering about the election system, we first need to specify four principles guiding data gathering (uniformity, transparency, expedition, and multiple sources) and three major obstacles (federalism, state and local officials, and disputes over the purpose of elections). With these principles and obstacles in mind, I sketch out a basic data gathering agenda intended to allow the public to assess the quality of voting in the United States.

Publication Type: Research Report
Abstract: Promoting dialogical interaction is crucial to students’ learning mathematics. This study showed that implementing approaches that embed writing and talk into classrooms helps students develop deeper understanding of mathematics concepts. Given that we found statistical difference between control and treatment students’ scores, we explored how the teachers change their practices with over the course of the study.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: We present findings from a complex factorial experiment designed to evaluate four approaches to collecting autobiographical information that we hypothesize may help reduce over-reporting of health promotion and disease prevention behavior. The methods evaluated include (1) the mode in which data are collected from the respondent, (2) asking about intention to obtain the procedure (a socially desirable behavior) before asking whether the behavior occurred, (3) asking about barriers or problems that might keep respondents from getting the procedure (justification for not performing the behavior) before asking about whether they have received it, and (4) asking about exceptions to the regularity with which they might report getting the examination as part of their annual physical examination. Data were collected from a sample of women aged 55 and older who live and receive their health care in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois. After completing telephone or ACASI interviews, respondents were asked to give permission to abstract their medical records in order to validate their self reports of pap tests, mammograms and physical examinations received during the past three years. A total of 1005 women participated in this study. Of these, information from medical records were available for approximately 560. Analyses focus on assessments of the practical utility of each experimental manipulation for improving the accuracy of self reports.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: For more than 60 years, mass communication researchers have relied on self-administered mail surveys to assess newspaper accuracy, asking people cited in news stories whether the information was correctly reported. But most accuracy studies involve a single local news market and the cooperation of the newspaper being examined, making comparison of news accuracy across newspapers and over time difficult if not impossible to assess. Seeking to provide an independent benchmark measure of newspaper accuracy in the United States, this study attempts to use Internet technology to overcome these limitations. Two methodological research questions are posed: (1) Using Internet search tools, is it feasible to generate a database of mail and email addresses for a large sample of news sources cited in news stories across the nation? (2) Will mixed-mode data collection, using mail and web-based surveys, enhance source participation?

Results show that new technology facilitates a cross-market accuracy survey of news sources. Working addresses were found for primary news sources cited in nearly all of the 7,600 newspaper stories in 20 U.S. markets studied. The response rate was 68 percent, indicating that news sources are willing to participate in a long-distance, independent survey. The response rate for the 10 newspapers in the mixed-mode experimental group was 6 percentage points greater than for the all-postal control group. The mixed-mode group also had fewer refusals, undeliverable addresses, and partially completed questionnaires. Respondents using the web questionnaire were significantly younger than those responding by mail, but otherwise differed only slightly in demographic make-up or in their assessment of newspaper accuracy. Mixed-mode data collection had an auxiliary benefit: Pre-notification letters by email provided a low-cost, rapid-response system of list validation, enabling researchers to correct addresses and other information before expensive mail surveys were sent.