Academic standards and performance outcomes are a major focus of the current Cycle 2 Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) audits. AUQA has clearly stated that universities will need to provide "evidence of setting, maintaining, and reviewing institutional academic standards and outcomes" (2010, p. 27). To do this, universities…

Districts expend a considerable amount of time, effort, and resources providing student performance data to teachers to inform instruction, and examining those data for organizational decision-making. Yet rarely, if ever, are these outcome data connected to what goes on in classrooms. In this experimental study, the author reports on the…

Prepared for cooperative education placement and career service professionals, this paper considers the applications of microcomputers in the development of a comprehensive management information system (MIS) for cooperative education programs. After noting the complicated information needs of cooperative education and common weaknesses of current…

Seven institutional research maxims based on research and theory about how people cognitively process information are discussed: more may not be better; augment humans with models; chunk data wisely; know decision-makers; heuristics are not always helpful; arrange tables by patterns; and accept negative evidence and new hypotheses. (Author/MLW)

Two recent developments in management information system technology and higher education administration have brought about the need for this study, designed to develop a methodology for revealing a relational model of the data base that administrators are operating from currently or would like to be able to operate from in the future.…

To estimate computer needs at a higher education institution, the major types of users and their future needs should be determined. In a large or complex university, three major groups of users are typically instructional, research, and administrative. After collecting information on the needs of these users, the needs can be translated into…

This paper describes an investigation of some effects of group interaction and consensus on information processing behavior. When individuals were asked to assess a hypothetical situation on the basis of various sequentially received data, a definite primacy effect was observed; individuals gave more weight to data they received first. This…

This is a report of a state-wide committee established by the Vice-Chancellor for Two-Year Campuses to develop a system of definitions and reporting for Ohio's two-year colleges. Specifically, the committee's goals were: (1) to suggest a conceptually focused glossary of terms which could be used to assure uniformity and comparability of data; (2)…

This paper describes an investigation of the effects of group interaction and consensus on information processing behavior when information is received sequentially or simultaneously by the information processing unit. Responses were compared to the Bayesian norm and further analyzed to determine the extent to which groups differed from…

Problems associated with uncoordinated proliferation of data collection procedures will not be alleviated until educational agencies and legislative bodies, at both state and federal levels, view data as a scarce resource which must be managed efficiently. Better linkages must be made between the data transfer requirements generated by the…

In 1987, the Chancellor's Office of the California Community Colleges (CCC) began implementation of the Management Information System (MIS) to improve its data collection and analysis capabilities by utilizing electronic mail communications systemwide. Specifically, the project seeks to replace paper copies of data generated for reporting…

An integrated student information system (ISIS) at Trinity University (Texas) is described with attention to how data are entered and how data are extracted for purposes of institutional research. The structure of the original ISIS files, the extract files, and the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) files is examined. An outline is…

A statewide system of reporting faculty workload for the 18 Maryland state community colleges is described, and study findings on faculty workload are presented. Data are collected for full-time teaching faculty who are tenured or on continuous contract. Major findings include: 89 percent of faculty workload is spent in formal classroom…

A number of problems faced by the custodians of large collections of data which are potentially useful for research in the behavioral sciences, are addressed in this presentation. These problems relate to the rights of individuals who provide research data, to questions of "informed consent", and to the circumstances under which the…

This report describes the development in 1986 of a management information system by the Sacramento City (California) Unified School District for use in high schools. A nine-page attachment, which comprises two-thirds of the report, offers profiles of selected schools drawn from the databases. Data sets of 200 information items, collected from all…