The policy papers included in this package address various facets of the topic of data-based accountability for education in California. Guy Benveniste of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Education explores the underlying issue of accountability and describes the implications of different types of accountability measures. In "New Directions for State Education Information Systems," Michael Kirst of Stanford University's School of Education argues for a state "information czar" who would coordinate and integrate the various "data streams" that are currently collected and disseminated in a fragmented fashion. An argument for identifying and rewarding merit schools, rather than merit teachers, is presented by Walter I. Garms of the University of Rochester. Garms discusses methods of measuring merit and specific indicators of merit, arguing that schools need freedom to manipulate resources to achieve desired results. Gene Dawson of the School of Education at Berkeley describes how data are collected for the California Basic Educational Data System, and offers suggestions for improving reliability. Edward Haertel of Stanford University discusses general problems of measuring the effects of reform, and David Stern of the University of California at Berkeley further explores the merit school concept and discusses issues related to California's new "quality indicators" program. References are included for each paper. (TE)