State regulators are the central authority in higher-education oversight, charged with ensuring consumer protection and quality assurance within the regulatory triad. Yet gaps remain in the understanding of regulatory renewal processes, their real-world implementation, and the capacity challenges these agencies face. To address this, State Higher…

In the 2023 report "Colorado's Longitudinal Data Landscape. Report to the Education Committees of the Colorado House of Representatives and the Colorado Senate. Statute: 23-1-141," the Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE) provided a detailed overview of Colorado's long history of efforts to support more connected, longitudinal…

Students cannot experience the full potential benefits of an intervention unless they are receiving the intervention. This is the second installment in a three-part series on intervention fidelity designed to highlight the importance of ensuring classroom supports are implemented as intended. This article provides guidance related to measuring and…

It may seem obvious, but learning should never be implied or assumed. Learning must be explicit, evaluated and monitored; the impact of teaching on student learning should be visible. But how can we be sure? Armed with years of research that includes more than 2,100 meta-analyses, and 130,000 studies that include more than 300 million…

This Forum Guide, developed by the National Forum on Education Statistics, provides best practices for collecting, managing, and using educator workforce data. It offers education agencies practical guidance on building high-quality data systems that inform teacher recruitment, retention, and professional development efforts.

The Forum Guide to Data Quality provides best practices from districts and states for maintaining quality data as these agencies regularly review and revise their methods for working with data, as well as their expectations for all staff who are responsible for education data and their quality. This resource is intended to help districts and…

The success of development projects and evaluations hinges on having access to research protocols and methodologies that consider the needs and characteristics of stakeholders, subjects, and context while remaining rigorous and culturally sound. These efforts are often complicated by a dearth of tools that have been tested for validity and…

Purpose: This tutorial outlines an approach for best practices for speech-language pathology assistants (SLPAs) to collect data and document services. The tutorial outlines methods for developing accurate and effective data collection skills and provides instructions and tools for collecting various types of data. The authors discuss the…

When education leaders utilize survey results to inform their decisions, they are often left wondering if the "right" survey questions were asked. To help state and local leaders improve existing instruments or create better instruments for data collection, this quick reference guide highlights best practices in designing effective…

The purpose of this paper was to review best-practice methods of collecting and analyzing speech production data from minimally verbal autistic speakers. Data on speech production data in minimally verbal individuals are valuable for a variety of purposes, including phenotyping, clinical assessment, and treatment monitoring. Both perceptual…

Businesses use facial recognition software, fingerprint scanning, and other biometric tools in the workplace and/or commercial establishments. Concerned with the collection, use, retention, and security of biometric data, and the impact of these practices, Illinois enacted the Biometric Information Privacy Act in 2008. We designed a project that…

The purpose of this document is to help education agencies identify the types of workforce data that are most useful for understanding immediate teacher shortages and monitoring educator supply and demand, as well as best practices for using these data. This resource supplements the information in the "Forum Guide to Staff Records"…

The prevalence of data use in education requires researchers to critically examine data-collection practices that could inform, obscure, or omit accurate representations of students. Thus, an innovative approach to accurate demographic collection and reporting can enable school districts to more accurately count and represent American…

Increasingly used in a variety of disciplines, evidence synthesis methods such as systematic reviews and meta-analysis can help researchers and practitioners identify trends and effective interventions and uncover theoretical gaps to address specific topics and issues (e.g., the effect of the gamification approach on learning outcomes). Based on a…

This guide provides information and best practices that will help state education agencies (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs) manage data related to students who frequently change schools, with a focus on actions to minimize student learning disruptions and allow agencies to provide support for those particular students. This document…