One of the US Department of Education's key priorities is turning around the nation's persistently low-achieving schools, yet exactly how to identify low-performing schools is a task left to state policy makers, and a myriad of definitions have been utilized. In addition, exactly how to recognize when a school begins to turn around is not well…

The best available evidence is one of the three critical features of evidence-based practice. Best available evidence is often considered to be synonymous with extremely high standards for research methodology. However, this notion may limit the scope and impact of evidence based practice to those educational decisions on which high quality…

The chapter explores critical roles of internal evaluators in contemporary organizational settings. The need is highlighted for an expanded, reconfigured, unorthodox set of roles and styles of work to meet the needs of the emerging learning organizations effectively. A discussion of major categories of internal evaluator roles emerged from the…

"Building Institutional Capacity for Data-Informed Decision Making" is the third installment of the Cutting Edge series, which aims to help colleges engage faculty, scale successful interventions, and create a strong culture of evidence through use of data to strengthen their institutional change and student success efforts. Though the…

A professor and an administrator joined forces to provide answers to two basic questions: What is needs assessment, and how does one do it? Discussion of the conceptual framework of needs assessment is based on experiences in the design and implementation of needs assessments in many states at levels ranging from state departments of education to…

This manual was designed for the administrator who has the responsibility for conducting all or part of an evaluation or is responsible for using evaluation results in program planning. The manual provides step-by-step guidelines to help: identify the purposes and audiences of an evaluation; prepare a basic description of the program or activity;…

This guide, which is intended for new supervisors and managers to use in an independent study setting, deals with interviewing and selecting new employees. The following topics are discussed in the individual sections: differences between people, five ways of looking at someone, first impressions and qualifications, brains versus ability,…

Presented is a comprehensive guide to college planning principles and strategies designed for administrators new to the instructional planning function. An introductory section encourages new planners to understand the characteristics of planning and successful planners, understand different types of planning, appreciate the importance of all of…