Armed with this guide's strategies and concrete examples, subject librarians, data services librarians, and scholarly communication librarians will be inspired to roll up their sleeves and get involved with teaching research data management competencies to students and faculty. The usefulness of research data management skills bridges numerous…

Choosing a school for a child can be a rewarding, but difficult task for parents. A recent survey reported that parents often feel confused by the information available to them as part of the school choice process. This can be exacerbated by limited time and resources to devote to the process--constraints that can particularly affect low-income…

More than ever, school districts and other organizations need to provide parents with information about school quality and their school choices. Across the country school choice is expanding in ways that provide opportunities--and challenges--for parents to select the schools that best fit their children's needs. The federal Every Student Succeeds…

School choice is expanding, providing both opportunities and challenges for parents seeking information about schools that best fit their children's needs. Federal law now calls for every school to have "understandable" and "user-friendly" report cards. However, there is little evidence-based guidance to help design effective…

Technology continues to radically change how we create and consume information. Today, news, reports, and other material are often delivered quickly through pictures, colors, or other eye-catching visual elements. Words still matter, but they may be tweeted, viewed on a smartphone, or placed in a call-out box in a report. The design of these items…

Campaign finance might seem like the exclusive province of political reporters, but there are many good reasons why authors should be paying attention--both in races for education positions and in other key races at the local, state, and federal levels with implications for education. Basic math is a necessary skill and familiarity with a…

The Culture of Data Use Workshop Toolkit helps school and district teams apply research to practice as they establish and support a culture of data use in their educational setting. The field-tested workshop toolkit guides teams through a set of structured activities to develop an understanding of data-use research in schools and to analyze…

The purpose of "Branding your Post-School Outcomes Data Collection Process" is to help state education agencies create brand recognition with youths, families, and school personnel for the post-school outcomes survey. Recognition--paired with information about the survey purpose, who is conducting the interview, and how the information…

This guide is designed to inform school directors about the value of a data dashboard and to provide information on how districts can create a data dashboard for school directors. A data dashboard is a tool for viewing and analyzing student achievement and performance data. Key data for monitoring student achievement and directing policy level…

The past decade has seen a substantial growth in methods and schemes for the display of multivariate data. This paper encompasses a sketch of the history of multivariate displays, from the pre-Columbian Quipu to Chernoff's Face; examines a number of techniques; describes their construction; illustrates their use; and comments on their efficacy.…

This guide is designed to assist those readers of "The Condition of Education" and similar reports who may lack experience or confidence in reading and understanding statistical information. It serves four purposes (1) identifies and describes the principal features of statistical tables and charts; (2) presents a few illustrations of…

This manual is a resource of ideas and suggestions for comprehensive statewide planning of vocational education. It is directed toward both experienced and inexperienced vocational education planners. The data analysis and display techniques presented are useful for producing information for developing state plans and for communicating data-based…

Describes an approach to generating graphs that represent the relationship between pieces of quantitative information and play upon the reader's perception of those relations. (AEA)

While most microeconomics curriculums contain no reference to the use of microcomputers, spreadsheet packages adapt well to microeconomics courses. This presentation examines the following topics in the context of a microeconomics course: (1) The Microcomputer Spreadsheet Package--LOTUS; (2) The Spreadsheet Anatomy--cells, commands, menus; (3)…

This monograph is a guide to effective presentation of report data and information from institutional research. The work focuses on several types of presentation: the written report (alternative ways for presenting information, appearance, and the audience); graphic displays or charts (to present words or data in an organized or symbolic fashion;…