Educational Research, 6/e, provides the most comprehensive introduction to the major research methods and types of data analysis used in educational inquiry today. Sixth Edition includes extensive coverage of qualitative inquiry.
Used this research textbook during my doctoral studies and have used it ever since in my teaching. Would recommend for any upper level research course.
So, I got this book about 8 months ago, as part of a bridge course to prepare one for the rigorous Ph. D. work in statistics. At that time, I read 3 pages, closed the book, and put it on my shelf. It is NOT a beginner's book. Now that I have a rough working knowledge of different statistical procedures, I picked back up this book and leafed through some procedures I found easy and difficult. The book makes more sense, now. However, I do feel this is a sort of encyclopedia for stats. 2-3 pages describing a procedure, with one or two articles/studies that typify that type of design. This might be useful for a reference once you have some background, but it is not a good preliminary text or a way to learn about different procedures.