District central office administrators increasingly face policy demands to use "evidence" in their decision making. These demands up the ante on education policy researchers and policy makers to better understand what evidence use in district central offices entails and the conditions that may support it. To that end, the authors conducted a…

This "Research Roundup" focuses on how schools can benefit when educational leaders use data to challenge their intuition and assumptions in their decision-making. In "Building an Automated Student Record System: A Step-by-Step Guide for Local and State Education Agencies," Barbara S. Clements provides administrators with a quick but comprehensive…

Discusses use of data for determining institutional effectiveness; identifies availability of national programs for student outcomes data collection, need for better qualitative and quantitative data, and influence of data on decision making. Review problems related to reporting data and using them in decision-making process. Concludes with…

This case involves a dilemma that school district evaluators frequently face. A superintendent directs an evaluator to participate in a press conference and present data validating the superintendent's program to improve high school course-passing rates. The evaluator presents his analysis to the superintendent, who directs him to remove some data…

This article reviews and analyzes the literature from 1980 through 1983 dealing with summative evaluation of training and development efforts in industry and business. An analysis is made to determine to what extent evaluation process components used by professional program evaluators are addressed by each of the articles reviewed. (CT)

A study of the reliability of teacher's interpretations of graphed performance data on students with moderate to profound mental retardation revealed that teacher judgments are consistent and accurate for continuous improvement in performance, but less consistent for variable performance. (MSE)

Examined factor structure of Career Decision Scale (CDS), comparing findings of seven factor analytic studies. Conducted new factor analytic study of CDS designed to avoid methodological problems of earlier studies, using 698 secondary school students as subjects. Results suggest "Simple" model of CDS factor structure could be derived…

The seven chapters of this special issue explore problems in how to better understand the reasoning process that is used to establish evaluative conclusions. The many unanswered questions about reasoning should stimulate further investigation of the meaning of sound evaluative reasoning. (SLD)

Discusses a shift in administration and decision making at colleges and universities since 1975 towards substantially more use of data and analysis to respond to such constituencies as federal agencies, state legislators, students, and donors. Urges the use of research to respond to new policy questions, such as appropriate rates of withdrawal…

Provides a procedure for interpreting the Campbell Interest and Skills Survey (CISS) and illustrates how it might be used to generate hypotheses during the counseling process. Examines the responses of a 29-year-old female high school teacher to the CISS. Addresses issues to be explored in counseling. (Author/MKA)

Educational improvement through data-based decision-making using high-quality data is a longstanding goal of policymakers and practitioners, and ensuring the quality of the evidence available to inform such decisions is a key part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The evidence-based education that such initiatives promote involves the…

The assessment competencies set forth in this monograph are knowledge and skills critical to a teacher's role as an educator. It is suggested that the seven standards described as essential for educational assessment of students be incorporated into future teacher training and certification programs. The standards require that teachers be skilled…

The Government Accounting Office (GAO) reviewed 71 actuarial, behavioral, and economic models that are used for retirement forecasting, focusing on models of federal retirement program costs, civilian retirement decisions, and retirement income. GAO wished to determine to what extent the models have been documented, to what extent the models are…

Assesses the value of the Government Printing Office's 1983 "Biennial Survey" as a tool to support depository library planning and decision making. The survey data are evaluated in terms of reliability, validity, and utility, and recommendations are offered for improving the design, administration, and analysis of the survey. (CLB)

Focuses on political misrule through the use of statistics. It examines the defining of political events in this century and the reasons for the rise of the statistics-oriented, problem-solving state which, it is argued, has had adverse affects on social programs and antipoverty policies and has created a misunderstanding of the prevalence of…