This brief provides guidance to decision makers in schools, districts, state education departments, and intermediary organizations about ways that cost analyses can help inform their decisions about program choices, budgets, and strategies. It addresses questions about: (1) why cost information matters in education; (2) what cost metrics are…

Education data are growing in quantity, quality, and value. When appropriately used to guide action, data can be a powerful tool for improving school operations, teaching, and learning. Education stakeholders who possess the knowledge, skills, and abilities to appropriately access, analyze, and interpret data will be able to use data to take…

The paper describes a decision making model for planning and implementing an integration program for exceptional children. Four phases are addressed (sample steps in parentheses): (1) information gathering (functional skills assessment), (2) information synthesis (long range goals), (3) program implementation (individualized education program…

Using a case-based dental scenario, presents systematic evidence-based methods for accessing dental health care information, evaluating this information for validity and importance, and using this information to make informed curricular and clinical decisions. Also discusses barriers inhibiting these systematic approaches to evidence-based…

Policy Implications Analysis (PIA) is a tool designed to maximize the likelihood that an evaluation report will have an impact on decision-making. PIA was designed to help people planning and conducting evaluations tailor their information so that it has optimal potential for being used and acted upon. This paper describes the development and…

Guidelines to facilitate the assessment and development of educational leadership decision-making skills are presented in this paper. Included are a review of traditional and contemporary concepts of the decision-making process, identification of appropriate techniques, and an analysis of four contemporary decision-making models by Thompson,…

Institutional researchers can use cognitive psychology theory and research to improve their support of academic decision-makers and to improve how information is communicated and used. (Author/MSE)

Written reports still constitute the primary means of communicating institutional research findings. They may have a variety of formats, but should always rest on a well-documented research process. (Author/MSE)

To be useful for management decision making, the college or university's cost accounting system must capture and measure improvements. Activity-based costing (ABC), which determines more accurately the full costs of services and products, tracks improvements and should proceed alongside reengineering of institutional accounting. Guidelines are…

Through a discussion of research on institutions using computer-based planning models, this question is addressed: How does the institutional decision maker make decisions using state-of-the-art computing tools without neglecting nonquantitative realities? (MSE)

This book is designed to help school administrators locate, analyze, and effectively use relevant information to create policies at the school or district level. Chapter 1 introduces the concepts of school policy and policy analysis, outlines the five-step Clear and Simple Analysis (CASA) model, and lists seven principles of effective policy…

Evaluability assessment is a descriptive and analytic process intended to produce a reasoned basis for proceeding with an evaluation of use to both management and policymakers. It was jointly developed by the members of the program evaluation group of the Urban Institute between 1968 and 1978. The approach begins by obtaining management's…

Addresses the issue of utilization of program evaluation information in public schools. Provides perspectives on utilization of evaluation information derived from knowledge utilization theory and research. Describes a set of program evaluation guidelines. Reports a meta-evaluation of the application of the guidelines in public schools. (Author)

This handbook was designed to assist local Teacher Corps projects to plan and implement the Teacher Corps'"Fourth Outcome:" the adoption or adaptation of the project's educational improvement activities by other educational agencies and institutions. Section I provides an overview of seven scenarios which might be applicable to local…

Information use in senior-level university decision-making councils involves organizational, interpersonal, and individual processes. Leadership styles emphasizing a group-process team approach to decision making are best for utilizing information to form policy. (Available from: Jossey-Bass, Inc. 433 California St., San Francisco, CA 94104,…