The present study was initiated to gather information about states' out-of-level testing practices. Specifically, we wanted to see whether states attempted to align out-of-level tests with grade of enrollment content standards, what processes are used to complete this task, and what psychometric information states offer as evidence of that…

This paper focuses on the data ramification of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998. Section 1 provides an outline of the role of these postsecondary institutions under WIA: members of the State and local boards; one-stop operators; one-stop partners; and eligible service…

This monograph, part of a series on student assessment, reports on the results of a national survey that examined institutional support for undergraduate student assessment. It provides a national profile of student assessment initiatives at comprehensive institutions and compares it to assessment practices and support patterns found in all types…

Provides data on background variables of respondents collected in 1993 as part of a large-scale study of American Sign Language (ASL) teaching and compares this data to similar data collected in 1980. Also discusses changes in ASL teachers profile during this interval and identifies areas where further growth is needed. (10 references) (LR)

Reports on a study of innovative city and county government programs in four western states. The study discovered widely divergent assessments of the same programs, dependent upon whether the survey instruments used qualitative or quantitative techniques. Discusses the possible reasons for this and the implications for future research. (MJP)

Announces the availability of a new dataset on U.S. politics, the "Record of American Democracy." Includes information on the type of data contained in the set and the extent of the data. Provides information on accessing the dataset via the World Wide Web. (DSK)

The incorporation of technology into library processes has tremendously impacted staff and users alike. The University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries is no exception. Sixteen years of reference statistics are analyzed to examine the relationships between the implementation of CD-ROMs and web-based resources and the number of reference questions.…

In this article, John Forbes, administrative analyst for the 80,000-student Fresno Unified School District in Fresno, and Terrence Young, chief information officer for the 70,000-student Guilford Country Schools in Greensboro, North Carolina, share their strategies for getting staff on board with Web-based data systems. These are the strategies:…

The American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities' (AAIDD's) Positive Behavior Support Training Curriculum," Second Edition" ("PBSTC"), is a curriculum for training direct support personnel and their supervisors in the values and practices of Positive Behavior Support. The curriculum is designed for direct support persons and…

This CD-ROM contains data from the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B:93/94) in the form of a public release Data Analysis System that contains most of the variables from the study that are of interest to analysts for descriptive purposes. The B&B:93 study tracks the experiences of a cohort of recent college graduates, those…

At the Futures Conference held by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in 1995, discussants from inside and outside the NCES considered the commissioned papers and contributed their expertise. This volume assembles the papers and commentary and summarizes some considerations for policy, research, and practice in future operations of…

Genuine educational reform depends on developing relationships with the home, community groups, politicians, and the business community (Seeley, 1981). This report is the third of three volumes that are products of a 3.5 year study of education reform, with a focus on the role of parent, family, and community involvement in the middle grades. The…

The methodology that has been used over the past 5 years to develop and implement the Parent Survey of the Department of Defense Dependents' Schools (DoDDS), known as the "Report Card from DoDDS Parents," is described. The focus is not on survey results, but on the processes and procedures used to design appropriate instruments, distribute and…

Since the creation of the National Cooperative Educational Statistics System in 1988, states have joined with the National Center for Education Statistics to produce and maintain comparable and uniform education statistics. Through the National Forum on Education Statistics, states have met to develop and propose a set of basic data elements for…

This handbook, which was written by researchers with expertise in Australia's technical and further education (TAFE) system, provides background information about the following: approaches to research in vocational education and training (VET); the range of methods normally used in research and their the application to VET; and procedures for…