The need for management information by college and university administrators is becoming more intense. Recognizing that computerized information systems have not been able to satisfy this growing need, an alternative approach to the preparation of management information is described. This approach places the needs of decision makers before those…

This school district utilized the generalized academic simulation programs (GASP) to assist in making decisions regarding the kinds of facilities that should be constructed at Pilchuck Senior High School. Modular scheduling was one of the basic educational parameters used in determining the number and type of facilities needed. The objectives of…

In the process of planning for the needs of all students, local school officials could use a linear planning guide. Such a procedure calls for moving through several phases: preparation for planning, analysis of the situation, development of alternatives, selection of a plan, implementation of the plan, and evaluation of the plan and of the…

As with any new theory, it is necessary to validate the basic construct of vocational maturity. Once this is done, instruments to measure vocational maturity, or decision making, can be evaluated. With this as an objective, this paper discusses some of the problems associated with measuring vocational maturity, such as identifying variables,…

The California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) is a comprehensive youth health risk and resilience data collection service sponsored by the California Department of Education (CDE). This part of the guidebook will assist practitioners in understanding, interpreting, and deriving the maximum benefit from the CHKS results. It provides a basic road map…

The Massachusetts General Hospital/Surgical and Special Services study, an information processing system for redesigning an outmoded existing hospital, structured information into small-scale elements that could be analyzed, reassembled into different solutions, and the solution selected that best accommodates all of the complex requirements. (MF)

The ultimate goal of continuing education programs is to bring about improvement in health education. Evaluations of these programs rarely indicate significant change. Problems with evaluations and with continuing education programs are discussed. (JN)

Factors involved in pre-planned and post-planned evaluation of program effectiveness are compared: (1) reliability and cost of data; (2) internal and external validity; (3) obtrusiveness and threat; (4) goal displacement and program direction. A model to help program administrators decide which approach is more appropriate is presented. (Author/MH)

Educational systems evaluation is a cyclical process of delineating, obtaining, and providing information for judging decision alternatives. As such, it encompasses much more than measurement. Methods for evaluating systems must be developed, because activities and orientations at this level differ from those of individual students, curricula, or…

Describes FOCES (Foster Care Expert System), a prototype expert system for choosing foster care placements for children which integrates information retrieval techniques with artificial intelligence. The use of prototypes and queries in Prolog routines, extended Boolean matching, and vector correlation are explained, as well as evaluation by…

Measures of preference are useful predictors of children's food consumption patterns. The paper discusses children's affective response to food and describes the preference assessment procedure which obtains information on children's likes and dislikes. The methodology helps investigate factors influencing development of preferences and food…

This article describes an innovative curriculum module the first author created on the two-way exchange between statistics and applied ethics. The module, having no particular mathematical prerequisites beyond high school algebra, is part of an undergraduate interdisciplinary ethics course which begins with a 3-week introduction to basic applied…

This handbook is an effort to establish current and consistent terms, definitions, and classification codes to maintain, collect, report, and exchange comparable information about staff. This effort was coordinated by the Council of Chief State School Officers under contract to the National Center for Education Statistics. It represents the best…

Although scholars and policy analysts both value quality-controlled collections of research results, they evaluate research according to different criteria. Nevertheless, an examination of a pessimistic fictional research experience and a more productive actual experience indicate that, although differences in focus between scholars and policy…

Program presentations on issues related to the use of statistics by research libraries and business meeting minutes are combined in this report from the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). The full text is provided for the three papers on the program theme that were presented at the meeting: (1) "Information to Manage--The Economics of…