As the number of publicly funded early childhood education (ECE) programs increases, policymakers will need empirical evidence to justify the taxpayer investment. Such justification will require a stronger understanding of the essential components of an ECE program's design, as well as solid evidence on which components, or constellations of…

The field of education is asking how research and evidence can bolster the knowledge of its practitioners. Educators increasingly are asked to use research and evidence to support their choices of programs, practices, and processes. The promise of using research in this way is more effective teaching and learning. But not all research and evidence…

In 2006, six community and technical colleges in Washington State joined the innovative national reform initiative called Achieving the Dream (ATD). This report describes the progress each college made in implementing ATD's "culture of evidence" principles for institutional improvement, examines strategies implemented by the colleges to…

The authors describe the University of Central Florida's top-down/bottom-up action analytics approach to using data to inform decision-making at the University of Central Florida. The top-down approach utilizes information about programs, modalities, and college implementation of Web initiatives. The bottom-up approach continuously monitors…

This study examines what specific data college faculty and administrators use in their jobs and the extent to which they use data analysis to design and improve the impact of programs and services. The study is based on a survey on the use of student data by faculty and administrators at 41 community colleges participating in Achieving the Dream:…

The authors argue that continuing medical education (CME) research fails to prove its effectiveness in patient outcomes, that there is no theory from which to generate measurable hypotheses and that questionable methodology, dubious applicability, and misleading conclusions pervade CME research. (SK)

Whether termed "quality indicators,""student outcomes," or "measures of accountability," the concern for educational effectiveness is surfacing as the new focus for community colleges. Key to the realization of educational accountability is the availability of solid research information that can assess to what extent results are being achieved.…

This publication presents examples of outcome and institutional effectiveness information produced through student and employer follow-up for Texas community and technical colleges from 1978-1987. The data in the booklet were collected through the Texas Student Information System (Tex-SIS) and are presented in reference to a series of questions…

As part of Project IMPACT's efforts to identify and develop procedures for complying with the impact requirements of Public Law 94-482, a case study was made of Illinois Projects in Horticulture. Fourteen horticulture projects in high schools and junior colleges were discovered through a previous study, personal interviews with two University of…

Results of a study of 30 Indonesian fifth-grade teachers support the value of intensive, research-based teacher training programs in changing teacher behavior and increasing teacher effectiveness. The effect of such programs appears limited to those behaviors and outcomes which reflect the primary focus or emphasis of the program. (IAH)

In order to identify and develop procedures for complying with the impact requirements of Public Law 94-482, Project IMPACT studied five problems: (l) how to define impact, (2) how to assess impact, (3) how to show cause and effect relationships between research and development (R&D) activities and changes in the vocational education…

The Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services (WPRS) program requires states to establish systems for identifying Unemployment Insurance (UI) claimants likely to exhaust their UI benefits and refers them to reemployment services. An evaluation was conducted to assess the reliability of the impact estimates provided in the evaluation of the WPRS…

This paper examines how to increase the national vocational education and training (VET) research effort in Australia and the mechanisms to increase the knowledge about and use of research results. Section 1, "Introduction," addresses the rapid change in VET and importance of a national VET research effort. Section 2, "Increasing…

This booklet contains 29 articles about literacy that originally appeared in newspapers across Canada during September 1987. Many are based on the extensive findings of a national literacy survey of 2,398 Canadian adults commissioned by Southam Inc. The survey provided the first real statistics about the state of literacy in the country;…

This handbook for state and local education agencies is intended as a reference to assist in initiating and/or improving follow-up systems or studies of former vocational students. A companion volume focuses on follow-up studies of special populations (see Note). Section 1, which contains information on use of the handbook, also introduces the…