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A rationale is established for designing a self-concept instrument for minority children which differs from traditional self-concept instruments. The paper describes a battery of instruments designed by the investigator, which tests, after three other variables of self-concept, a fourth variable, "sense of control". This seems to be an important variable for culturally different children, but comprehensive batteries for monitoring student's self-perceptions seldom include such a variable. The battery of multidimensional self-concept instruments consists of a self-report questionnaire with a value component, as well as a teacher evaluation questionnaire. (Author)

This paper is concerned with job satisfaction of men and women who occupy positions of leadership in local school systems. It is concerned with the effects of the ethnic composition of schools, both students and teachers, on the job satisfaction of individuals holding administrative positions. More specifically, it reports the findings of such a study among school administrators. The study was made to obtain evidence about the perceived job satisfaction of school administrators and to assess what relationships exist between job satisfaction and select organizational variables. Five need classes were researched: security, social, esteem, autonomy, and self-actualization. A 13-item Likert-type instrument was mailed to 1,000 public school administrators in California. Job satisfaction was defined as the difference between how much each need an administrator thinks is being satisfied and how much he thinks that he should be getting from his position. Stratification was applied by job level. Four job levels were controlled for principal, director, assistant principal, and superintendent. The ethnicity component was represented by respondents listing themselves as minority or nonminority and by percent of minority students and minority teachers in the schools. Findings reveal that at the principalship level, principals of schools with a 20 percent or more minority student enrollment enjoyed their positions less than did those with fewer minority students. (Author/MLF)

In recent years much attention has been given to the identification of social and psychological factors that may account for differences in the achievement of students in American schools. A wide range of studies has demonstrated that the family's socioeconomic status and racial background, as well as the socioeconomic and racial composition of the school's student body, are correlated with both student achievement and mean school achievement. The high correlation between family background and school composition in both individual and mean school achievement, however, does not demonstrate that these variables are the cause of differences in achievement. The small number of exceptions at least suggests that a significantly higher achievement is possible in low SES schools, and that significantly lower achievement sometimes occurs in high SES schools. Similar exceptions to the major regression line demonstrate that reasonably high achievement is possible in low SES black schools. The present research is an attempt to identify some factors that may explain the differences in the level of achievement among schools with similar socioeconomic status and racial composition. (Author)

To determine how selected community colleges with institutional research offices have organized the office to implement institutional research, incorporated the office into the institutional structure, assigned responsibility for institutional research, determined priorities for research projects, and assessed the value of outcomes of research projects, eight community colleges were visited. Data were gathered by use of a questionnaire and guideline questions, as well as by supplementary information and materials furnished by the interviewees. Interviews were held with the person responsible for research in each college, as well as with other people in the colleges. Analysis of the data showed that: (1) the institutional research office of each college was organized as an administrative unit; (2) the person responsible for research is at the director or coordinator level in the administrative structure; (3) the research office usually employs at least one professional person and one secretarial or clerical person, and there is a tendency to employ one or more technical or paraprofessional persons; (4) decisions to institute a research unit are made unilaterally at the presidential or president's cabinet level; (5) research project priorities are generally decided at the administrative level; (6) evaluation of the research project output has not been formalized; (7) research directors felt that too much research time was being diverted to nonresearch projects; (8) there was need for research designed to assist in the development of new instruction methods and to assess the outcomes of instructional methodology; and (9) the release of data to the public through one office enhanced the image of the college with the public. (DB)

One purpose of the study was to identify, compare, and report the various patterns of organization and characteristics of student teaching programs in business teacher education. Another purpose was to identify and report the various patterns of organization, characteristics, and distinct features of existing internship programs in business teacher education. A questionnaire was designed and submitted to universities holding membership in the North-central region of the National Business Education Association. Eighteen hypotheses were constructed, and the results reported. An interview outline was designed and personal and telephone interviews were conducted in institutions which offered internship programs for business education students. Conclusions indicated no one institutional pattern for student teaching, internship, or the administration and supervision of programs. Preteaching experiences were similar for both student teachers and interns, while time allocation was less for student teaching than for internship. There appeared to be a direction toward the development of internship programs for business teacher education students. In some universities, the internship has been offered as an alternative to student teaching. Implications of the study were the need for State departments of certification to provide an official label or certification to assure suitable status and legal protection. (EA)

To explore the impact of an introductory sociology course on concepts held by college students, a study was executed on the images of sociology and sociologists, the variation of this image with other variables, the degree and direction of change of these images on completing an introductory course, and variability among students' changes in direction and degree. Students enrolled in an introductory sociology college course were given questionnaires at the beginning and end of each term. A semantic differential technique was used with a seven-point scale for several polar opposites. In addition, questionnaires at the end of each course included a critique of the course and several background items. The hypotheses that college students would share a consistent image of sociology and that selected personal variables would not affect their images of sociology or sociologists were supported by the data. A third hypothesis, proposing little changes in student images of sociology after the introductory course, was not supported: student images did appear affected by the course. Research methodology, references, and tables of data are included in the report. (Author/KSM)

An analysis of the findings of three studies that were the bases of doctoral dissertations completed under the direction of the author are presented. The basic source of data was a questionnaire sent to all school superintendents in Mississippi and to a sample of superintendents in Arkansas. Some of the findings included in the synthesis are: (1) research on the diffusion of innovations has progressed in recent years and is moving at an accelerated rate; (2) the largest number of innovation adoptions reported came in the last year, indicating an acceleration in the rate of adoption throughout the period of the study; (3) instructional innovations took place in language arts more than any other subject area, followed by mathematics, science, and social studies; (4) academic programs for the average and below-average ability students received more attention than did those for the over-average; and (5) in general, the data from other States show that both Mississippi and Arkansas are starting late but following the same general adoption patterns that have been set in other States. (Author/MLF)

The problem of this study was to assess the characteristics of innovations that were perceived by two samples of potential adopters of social studies innovations. The purpose was to determine if those perceptions were related to the potential adopters' attitudes toward the innovations and to adoption of innovations, and if relative advantage, compatability, trialability, observability, and complexity are useful concepts to help predict the degree to which social studies innovations will be adopted. Principals of 250 high schools in Indiana, Ohio, Florida, and Georgia received a New Social Studies Materials List and a Materials Information Questionnaire. Statistical analyses performed on the data from the completed questionnaires indicated that potential adopters tended to come from more urban and suburban communities, that there is correlation between perceptions and attitudes, but that little correlation exists between perceptions and adoption and between attitudes and adoption. Attitudes were shown to be influenced by observability and compatability. The New Social Studies Materials List, Materials Information Questionnaire, and tables of data are included. (Author/KSM)

To determine the effects of the increasing enrollment of women and the greater mix in the age composition of student bodies in colleges, questionnaire responses were obtained from approximately 6,500 students in 27 nationally scattered junior and community colleges. Comparisons were made of the college perceptions and experiences of the women and older students with those of men and of younger students. Three age groups were used--under 22, 22 to 29, and older than 29. The responses showed that: (1) sex differences were negligible in more than 100 items concerning academic experiences; only in post-college plans did men respond differently, reporting proportionately greater uncertainty than did women their age; (2) age differences were found to be substantial and linear with respect to academic performance, satisfaction with classes, preference for student- or instructor-directed instruction, and program uncertainty. The older the student, the more likely he is to (1) be in no academic difficulty; (2) be satisfied with his instructors, responsive, and agreeable; (3) prefer instructor-directed learning; and (4) have definite plans as to what he will do after leaving college. Compared with the older student, those of college age have many academic problems, see their classes as lacking challenge, prefer student-planned and student-controlled learning situations, and are uncertain about their programs. (Student Joint Response to Item Groups and Description of Student Grouping are provided.) (DB)

A pilot survey was conducted to determine if a network of existing libraries serving state education agencies would be of value in promoting general exchanges of information on educational programs and on state and federal education legislation. A 47-item questionnaire was sent to directors of legislative reference services and state libraries and commissioners of education in seven states. Results were collected by telephone. Because the responses were inconclusive with respect to the survey goal, a further study was recommended to discover how much coordination is needed and what the states are willing to do to promote a network. The questionnaire and a list of respondents are appended. (PF)

Intended for employers concerned about problem solving and communication within their organization, this document outlines a strategy for developing an instrument that would provide objective data rather than impressionistic data. A questionnaire was designed to explore the relationship between the central constructs of problem solving and communication and the organizational climate. Data from the questionnaire were used to identify the obstructive factors and seek solutions to them. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire are discussed in detail. An appendix to the document listing the six possible obstructive factors found in the questionnaire follows a list of references. (JC)

The generalizability of factor structures of student ratings of instruction based on instructors' individual differences was examined. The subjects were instructors from the humanities, social science, and mathematics divisions who had had their courses evaluated at least twice using the same evaluation questionnaire. The data from the three divisions were factor analyzed and the resulting factor structures compared using Kaiser's procedure. Only one factor ("defines student responsibilities") was found to be stable within the across divisions. The results were explained in terms of the distinction between within-class covariation and between-class covariation. (Author)

This research reports on an attempt to construct a brief questionnaire which could indicate the fitness of an applicant for a position as a deputy sheriff and predict some of his/her probable on-the-job behaviors. The research presents: (1) a discussion of problems involved in using an applicant's interview behavior to predict fitness for employment; (2) an overview of research literature suggesting variables pertinent to on-the-job performance of law enforcement officers; (3) an application of these variables to the fitness of an applicant for the position of deputy sheriff; (4) a report of construction and testing of a measure relating to the previously discussed behavior of an officer on the job; and (5) the projection for the next phase of this research which would apply revised "philosophy" items and a more selective set of predictor variables. (Author/PC)