The need for accountability in school psychological services is receiving increased attention. School psychologists are now being asked to demonstrate the effectiveness of their services. Data collection procedures can improve services to clients and systems, enhance the delivery system's psychological services program, validate the need for…

This book is an easy-to-use guide for school boards in how to use data intelligently when evaluating student achievement, educational improvement, and school accountability. Its purpose is to encourage school boards to use data as a basis for their decision-making instead of speculation, perception, or limited observation. Board members can learn…

The Community College Student Success Think Tank, part of the Community College Student Success Project, funded by Lumina Foundation for Education, brings student and academic affairs officers together with institutional researchers to reflect on trends and issues surrounding data-driven decision making in community colleges. Participants consider…

Discusses a study conducted by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) which examined the federally funded research system and the role of data for decision making in research policy. Highlights include data needs; research expenditures and personnel; the research process; measuring the outcomes of research; and the research evaluation process.…

Describes how one school improved after a new principal put data-based decision making (via a detailed needs assessment) at the heart of school reform and staff development efforts, discussing the school's evolution. The paper examines key factors that support the effective use of data in schools: focus to answer questions, reflection to provide…

This article highlights several issues related to the collection of post-release outcome data in the evaluation of correctional education programs and identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the different methods of collecting data related to recidivism, employment/earnings, and further education/training. The use of traditional follow-up in…

In 1985 a project was developed to strengthen policy guiding regionalization of occupational programs in New Jersey county community colleges. The project had three major goals: to establish a policy for the regionalization of selected occupational programs offered by the colleges; to describe ways that programs could be identified for regional…

The lack of high quality data to describe and monitor U.S. educational systems hampers reform decisions and will impair reform evaluation. This paper sets forth the Council of Chief State School Officers' (CCSSO) recommendations for the Council and federal, state, and local education agencies to help improve the quality of educational indicators.…

Methods of identifying effective special education practices are analyzed to help practitioners identify and adopt such practices. The contents of this guide include a flowchart for effective practice identification (EPI), an analysis of decision-making steps in this process, and two examples of identification procedures. The decision-making steps…

Needs assessment is presented as a scanning process to identify if and where interventions are required in the educational setting and also to build and support successful implementation of those processes. Themes or perspectives, which provide a general framework for the work of a needs assessment team, are outlined. Within this framework, needs…

The paper presents a model to assist administrators of special education programs for multiply handicapped children in making budgetary decisions and in evaluating therapy programs. The model's use requires that the efficiency and effectiveness of the various therapeutic services be measured and that the service needs of the multiply handicapped…

The first paper in this collection of symposium papers presents the results of a survey of nearly 800 educational institutions and provides information on institutional characteristics, institutions engaged in teacher education evaluation, scope of data collected, methods of data collection, relationship between size of program and method of data…

Employee selection and appraisal criteria were examined in 44 organizations to (1) test a new data gathering instrument, (2) determine the extent to which student interviewers and organizational interviewees had similar perceptions of the importance of the selection and appraisal criteria used in that organization, and (3) continue and expand an…

Demographic and economic trends that will influence higher education and the implications for collective bargaining and forced faculty unionism are considered. Section II presents enrollment and cost data for the period 1965-1985, which determine the demand for instructional staff at colleges and universities; data are also provided on the supply…

The organizational structure of this manual parallels the evolutionary stages in school improvement--needs assessment, planning, implementation, and outcomes. The manual provides procedures for data-based management and includes within each section, sample instruments, data collection and analyses procedures, and questions for decision-making. The…