The authors present a pedagogical primer on the highly controversial business strategies of data mining and automated prediction. They provide a summary that allows business professors and students the opportunity to better understand the privacy and ethical issues that arise from high-tech, Internet-based organizations implementing programs to…

Nationally, more than one million youth drop out of high school each year. One in four young people do not graduate with their age mates. Thus, in recent years, national leaders have directed sustained attention to what they term the "dropout crisis," particularly in high schools that are graduating less than two-thirds of their…

Offers a formula to refine enrollment projections at the school district level. The formula builds on the traditional cohort survival technique and is based on the assumption that what has happened in the past will continue to happen in the future. Instructions and sample projections are provided. (Author/WD)

This handbook for institutional researchers focuses on describing methods and techniques for conducting and merging external and internal analyses in order to produce an expanded vision of alternative future environments. Such vision is needed for the formulation of strategic long-range plans. Section 1 begins with a discussion of how an internal…

This paper examines the use of environmental scanning for institutions of higher education to achieve the following objectives: (1) provide early warning of changes that will have an impact on education; (2) define potential threats and opportunities to the institution or department; (3) promote a future orientation in faculty; and (4) alert…