This report is a summary of Washington State's first 18 months of public higher education assessment activities. The two main sections of the report provide, first, summaries of the institutional assessment activities and, second, a discussion of the statewide assessment indicators. Specific sections examine the collection of entry-level baseline…

The 14 City Technology Colleges (CTCs) opened so far in Great Britain are achieving an average attendance rate of between 90 percent and 97 percent. This high level of attendance has been assisted by the use of electronic registration (role taking) devices, including smart cards, portable computers, and optical readers. This report compares…

Information about the rate of student transfer from two- to four-year institutions and transfer students' achievement at the senior institutions can be obtained in several ways. One approach is the utilization of a statewide student tracking system, which permits easy identification of student progress at any level in the system. Systemwide…

GENESYS is a GENeric Evaluation SYStem for data collection and evaluation through computer technology. GENESYS gathers and reports the standard information (student characteristics, achievement, attendance, discipline, grades/credits, dropouts, and retainees) for specific groups of students. In the Austin (Texas) Independent School District's…

This report provides a summarized version of a larger study conducted by the Office of Technology Assessment concerning the choices that Congress and the executive branch must make in supporting U.S. science and engineering. The summary first discusses the report's origins; trends in federal research funding; and a look at federally funded…

This report analyzes what the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) identifies as four pressing challenges for the Federal Research System in resource allocation and funding for research in the 1990s: (1) setting priorities in funding; (2) understanding trends in research expenditures; (3) preparing human resources for the future research work…

A manual for trainers of development workers and change agents in the third world provides guidelines for evaluation of development training programs. Chapters define evaluation, present a general model of development, and discuss evaluation in development training programs. Designing training systems for development workers and change agents,…

Trends in the level of borrowing by graduate and professional students, and the capacity of students to repay their education debt are considered. In addition, sources of debt data and implications of this information for national student aid and data collection policy are addressed. Attention is also directed to levels of indebtedness between…

To establish a comprehensive national database on postsecondary student financial aid, the National Center for Education Statistics conducted the 1987 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS). Objectives were to: (1) determine the costs of postsecondary education for aided and non-aided students; (2) evaluate how students finance their…

The use of management information systems (MIS) in the department fiscal system is described in this paper, with a focus on development of a planning model prior to MIS implementation. Planning stages involve a task force to evaluate the situation prior to implementation. Applicability of simple and advanced management information systems are…

The latest available data as of the end of 1989 is presented on the progress of African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and American Indians in postsecondary education. Statistics have been compiled on high school completion, college participation, and college completion obtained from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of the Census…

The latent structure, reliability, and item discrimination of 33 items on a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) instrument representing knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) were assessed. The study sample included 311 adolescents ranging from ages 12 to 19 years. Demographic characteristics of the…

This guide, written for teachers and administrators wishing to introduce evaluation systems that promote continued teacher growth and enhance school effectiveness, suggests that meaningful change requires a clear understanding of what is already in operation, substantial skill development, and adequate resources for the duration of the change…

This professional development guide is designed for vocational education practitioners to use with a separately available handbook on time-use analysis and an optional videotape on conducting workshops on time-use analysis. Examined first is the importance of analyzing time on task. After a discussion of the importance of planning, a six-point…

There is a need for improved educational indicators in order to determine the nature of the major problems facing American education. Based on the experience of the National Commission for Excellence in Education, this paper tries to provide the basis for identifying a preliminary set of indicators that would be useful to policymakers and that are…