When the COVID-19 pandemic drove schools online in March 2020, state education leaders were left without access to data needed to understand how best to support students. The pandemic revealed the strengths and limitations of state education data systems while inspiring new strategies for collecting, reporting and using data. In 2021, DataSmith…

Over the last two years the Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC) staff conducted a thorough program review to determine the current relevance and value of the Midwest Student Exchange Program (MSEP). This culminated in the report "Student Reciprocity Programs and MSEP in the 21st Century" (ED627191) which utilized historical MHEC…

For any labor market to function properly, clear information is needed to guide decision making; its absence invariably leads to less than optimal decisions and inefficiencies. While the broader labor market is riddled with imperfect information, the teacher labor market is particularly vulnerable--largely for the lack of the most basic…

College Promise programs aim to make students believe they can afford college, and to give them the opportunity to go to college and earn degrees without taking on significant debt. At the core of all College Promise programs is a scholarship: All eligible College Promise students receive scholarships that may cover up to 100 percent of tuition…

Over the past two decades, college and career readiness became a priority in K-12 education. While graduation rates have been rising, far too many high school graduates are not ready to succeed in college or a job. Employers note that freshly-minted employees too often need additional training to perform their roles, many are ineligible for…

As Institutional Research (IR) moves beyond its fiftieth anniversary, a new profession, called Institutional Effectiveness (IE), is emerging. In some respects, IR and IE are similar. IE, though, appears to be taking the leadership role. What are the structure, purpose, and responsibilities of IE offices? What are the implications for the IR field…

In times of economic uncertainty, community colleges have consistently turned to the experience of past generations as an avenue toward innovation and the modernization of their programs and services. Community colleges have been able to continuously reinvent themselves to serve the ever-changing needs of society. With President Obama's increased…

This evaluation approach provides a mechanism for obtaining and synthesizing managerial information about vocational education programs. Data analyses and the conclusions and recommendations of the study are used to determine future educational activities and priorities in the state. (SK)

This publication describes an evaluation design developed to assess school-to-work (STW) efforts throughout the Saginaw Valley STW Partnership area in Michigan. An introduction is followed by an overview of the aim of evaluation. Section 3 describes how the variables pertinent to the evaluation of the STW program initiative were identified,…

The first volume of this report describes a survey of the adult basic education program in Michigan, including a statement of purposes, a review of relevant literature, a discussion of procedures and survey instruments, a discussion of findings and conclusions, and a chapter on limitations of the study and recommendations for future research. The…