The basic concepts, practices, and considerations in assessment are outlined in order to provide the reader with a beginning knowledge of assessment techniques and procedures. Discussion includes the goals of assessment, types of tests, criteria for instrument selection, test construction, data collection procedures, and statistical analysis of…

Ethnography may be used to inform the audience of a curriculum program with the activities of the educators and students involved. Thus the expository function of evaluation is best met by ethnography. A conceptual model developed at the Central Midwestern Regional Educational Laboratory incorporates ethnographic data and techniques into…

Two of the most successful regional educational data processing centers in Iowa are analyzed to provide information for future efforts to develop educational information systems. Objectives of the system and its scope of operation are determined. Then hardware/software necessary to achieve these goals is specified, along with an estimated budget…

The necessary handbooks for use of the Student Information System (SIS), developed and tested by the Western Nevada Regional Education Center under a 1968-71 Title III (Elementary and Secondary Education Act) grant, are presented in this volume. As noted, the purpose of the SIS is to supply data and information to persons or organizations who make…

This document is a summary and evaluation of methodological procedures and results for the field test of the Beginning Postsecondary Student Longitudinal Study Second Followup, 1990-94 (BPS:90/94). The BPS study is a departure from previous studies in that it starts with a cohort of individuals as they enter their postsecondary studies regardless…

This manual familiarizes data users with the procedures followed for data collection and processing of the second follow-up student component of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), with the corollary objective of providing necessary documentation for use of the data file. Chapter 1 presents an overview and history of the…

This manual familiarizes data users with the procedures followed for data collection and processing of the second follow-up dropout component of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), a survey of the educational and personal characteristics of students. The dropout data file contains records for 2,028 sample members who…

This profile presents and summarizes available information about the quality of data from the five surveys that comprise the SASS, along with background material on the survey design and procedures for the following: (1) School Survey; (2) School Administrator Survey; (3) Teacher Demand and Shortage Survey; (4) Teacher Survey; and (5) Teacher…

Ways in which computers and audio tape recorder techniques were used to record, index, and present data collected during two summers of field work in a rural area of Mexico are described. The research goal was to study the Otomi Indian shamans. Two computers were used: the Honeywell 6800 DPS-2 and the Osborne-1 microcomputer. The database system…

The adequacy of the Department of Labor's (DOL) efforts to comply with Public Law 94-311 which directed several of the larger Federal agencies to improve their collection, analysis and publication of Hispanic statistics in such areas as decennial censuses, vital statistics, and unemployment data was evaluated. Data were gathered from interviews…

This paper reviews the question of the cost and benefits of data for the analysis of state policy questions, and concludes that in the abstract the question cannot be answered; rather, it must be considered on a continuing basis whenever data is to be collected in the support of baseline studies or special projects. The paper suggests six criteria…

This document is designed as a workbook for those planning to conduct labor market surveys. The data gathering procedures were specifically designed for a small rural college with limited financial and manpower resources. The purposes of such a survey are to identify manpower needs, to make the college known as a source of trained manpower, and to…

This report documents the second-year progress of the Community College Data Base Team in their efforts to build a geographically based data system for use by college researchers and administrators. The primary purpose of the 1973-74 team effort was to expand the 1972-73 data base by adding internally generated district items, aggregated to the…

Some of the schools participating in the Southwest Regional Laboratory's Instructional Management System (IMS) pilot test submitted input data forms to and received processed information from regional processing and data collection centers. To determine the feasibility of alternative methods of data collection and output return, evaluative data…

Computer routines for the translation of teacher-prepared mark sense forms to magnetic tape are described. The program, Receiving IMS (RIMS), is part of the Southwest Regional Laboratory's (SWRL) Instructional Management System (IMS). It accepts mark sense sheets from remotely located Xerox 660 scanner copiers and/or IMS update information from…