These papers presented at a World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (WHO/EURO) Consultation explore current approaches to environmental health data in Europe. Topics discussed include unified environmental health databases, the use of national hospital registers, health statistics in small areas, expert systems, chemical databases,…

Reviews past extension reporting systems--Extension Management Information System, Narrative Accomplishments Reporting System, and Program Planning and Reporting System--and the mandates of the new Government Performance and Results Act. Highlights potential conflicts among the information needs and quality indicators of local, state, and federal…

Describes the development of the Federal State Cooperative System (FSCS) for Public Library Data, a system that combines the annual collection of data from public libraries by state agencies with the reporting of national public library statistics by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). Future plans are also discussed. (six…

Discusses reasons for supporting indirect indicators to track higher education's progress in teaching critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving skills. Outlines the primary characteristics of indirect indicators. Provides specific examples of different indirect indicators, analyzing data collection methods. Assesses the viability of…

This brochure argues for consistency in how disabilities are named in national data collection programs. It notes that currently many students with disabilities are excluded from national data collection programs and, when they are included, there is extreme variability in the disability classification assigned to them. Nineteen different national…

This brief report highlights the issues, evidence, and first steps toward including students with disabilities in educational data systems. The report notes that if students with disabilities are excluded from educational data collection systems, policy makers do not have an adequate set of information from which to make policy decisions. The…

In January of 1987, a planning conference was convened by the Center for Education Statistics as part of an effort to study the feasibility of various approaches to the nationwide assessment of children's readiness for instruction in kindergarten and first grade. This report provides, in an appendix, the texts of the four commissioned papers…

This document includes invited papers written for the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Elementary/Secondary Education Data Redesign Project. Early in 1985, NCES began a thorough review of its data collection program. The purpose of the review was to address questions of the suitability, scope, reliability, and timeliness of…

This paper proposes a fundamentally new national data system for elementary and secondary education, differing in structure and content from present education data-collection activities of the federal government, the states, and local education agencies. This report was contracted by the U.S. Department of Education's Center for Statistics as a…

This report of a United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) pilot project, which was carried out during 1982-84 in Khartoum (Sudan) to develop a vehicle for providing access to information on research in progress, describes: (1) the study that led to the conclusion that a national register of research projects was…

Both parents of aid applicants have the primary obligation to contribute to their children's educational expenses before public and private funds are awarded. It is suggested that Basic Grant, state agencies, and national services should change their instructions, and that government agencies need central collection and analysis of each parent's…

Knowing and understanding the principles and tenets underlying dissemination, utilization, and impact collection facilitate the "how." Dissemination is a communication process involving interactional relationships among individuals. Involvement of multiple agencies gives rise to networking. Disseminating is also a major facet of planned…

This document reports on three focus groups comprised of state officials, local practitioners and supporters, and researchers who were convened to provide input on strategies for assessing and validating the effects of tech prep. Part I provides a brief summary of the groups' discussions, including major points and broad themes in these four topic…

This monograph summarizes educational policy trends of the past 5 years in terms of their implications for the educational outcomes of students with disabilities. The first section reviews the gradual development of federal and state policies concerning goal and standard-setting activities, accountability, and large-scale and alternative…