Discusses the collaboration among the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office, the California Employment Development Department and community college practitioners to develop an administrative data-matching system to meet accountability mandates of the 1990 Perkins Act. Reviews the benefits of collaboration when matching student records…

Explores the use of state wage data in college planning, program improvement, and educational assessment. Explains how Southwestern College, which began collecting post-college wage data to gauge its economic impact in the community, found that these data were also valuable in assessing its career programs and institutional effectiveness. (EMH)

A large-scale analysis was conducted of problem behavior by observing 20 individuals living in residential facilities. Data were converted into scatter plot formats. When the data were transformed into aggregate "control charts," 12 of 15 sets of data revealed 30-minute intervals during which problem behavior was more likely to occur.…

A study involving 11,804 British children (age 10) found that when specified criteria for dyslexia were used, 269 children qualified as dyslexic. These included 223 boys and 46 girls, for a ratio of 4.51 to 1. Difficulties in interpreting these data are discussed and a defense of the criteria is provided. (Author/CR)

Research on education-to-work transitions perpetuates a predictable, linear pathways model that is no longer appropriate. Alternative approaches include vocational focus, occupational focus, contextual focus, altered patterns, and mixed patterns. Using a different framework necessitates changes in data gathering and analysis. (SK)

A panel of American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy approved supervisors generated 771 variables thought to be fundamental to positive marriage and family therapy (MFT) outcome, and rated 217 of these variables as very important to the successful outcome of MFT. The variables were collapsed into five categories and further condensed…

Used an event-based approach to study the nature of coordination in 3- and 6-month olds during interaction with their caregivers. Found that infants coordinated their vocalizations and facial actions more than expected by chance. When two communicative events were temporally associated across modalities, one event tended to be embedded within the…

Ten French-speaking preschool children in Quebec with intellectual disabilities received either an intervention program based on the emergent literacy paradigm involving modeling, exploration, and interaction with an adult, or a comparison intervention. Pre- and post-test comparisons with a control group found the only item on which experimental…

Describes three major expenditure categories and school-level operating costs in eight large Texas districts. Teacher salary costs are the primary determinate of resource differences among schools. An analysis of districts' fiscal and performance data shows that resources directed toward greatest student need are inadequate to overcome poverty…

Rudner's analysis of data from a large survey of home-schooled students provides an inaccurate portrayal of home-schooling families as a white, Christian, monolithic population. Insufficient attention to the data's biases gives an erroneous picture of home schooling. (SLD)

To facilitate an integrated 10-year development plan, a Colorado Girl Scouts council collaborated with an architecture firm to create computer-generated maps of its camp properties, with links to relevant information. Maps and software provided unprecedented accuracy and access, were easily updated, and facilitated funding presentations. Sidebars…

Emphasizes the need to teach probability and statistics to elementary school students. Explains that it will help them think more logically about arguments and enable them to explain their thinking with numerical information. Describes different exercises that will allow students to learn about statistics, probability, and data collection and…

In fall 1997, a midwestern district initiated changes to enable all stakeholders (especially teachers) to be knowledgeable users of standardized and teacher-made test results. Two major activities were implemented: data notebooks for each school and a data-mentor program to develop school personnel's data-analysis skills. (MLH)

Describes a group of teachers working together to consider Action Research projects in their own classrooms in the area of assessment. Describes ways teachers can use a range of assessments (rubrics, performance assessments, checklists, and other feedback and assessments), analyzed in a variety of ways, to examine the effectiveness of their…

Data-based decision making is a process of inquiry, analysis, and decision making that draws inferences from the interplay of school input/process and output variables. A case study involving a Connecticut district's response to falling SATs illustrates the need for fast, sophisticated information technology systems. (MLH)