The educational effectiveness of community colleges is under new scrutiny as a result of both a federal government focus on accountability of higher education institutions and greater competition for the state funds traditionally directed to the colleges. Policymakers, who want to tie public college allocations to their outcomes, and families,…

This report documents the design and collection of the National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES) of 2001. It begins by providing an overview of the collection and the report. Next, the design of the questionnaires are discussed. Chapter 3 presents the sample design which is followed by information about the data collection. Chapter 5…

It is clear that women have made progress in advancing into the ranks of school administration since the passage of Title IX, and equally clear that they have not achieved parity with men. Recognizing the problems posed by the absence of reliable, comparative data, and considering the need for longitudinal studies to be able to address the…

This report provides evidence concerning the projected demand for substance abuse treatment services for older Americans over the next 20 to 30 years and suggests approaches for refining these projections. A work group of Federal agency representatives and university researchers was established by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services…

Organizations are looking at ways to manage their information resources. Both the capture and the use of data created by the organization have come under scrutiny. Part of the concern comes from their desire to enhance the business process and part comes from the explosion of data available to any organization. In this context the role of…

This paper describes the processes for collecting information about the objectives of a medical school curriculum and the validation studies of those processes. Major revisions were implemented in the curriculum of the first 2 years at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in 1998. In the 2000-2001 academic year, student and faculty groups…

Conducting and analyzing a school culture audit can be a useful diagnostic tool and can enhance the impact of a school improvement plan. This paper describes the administration of a school culture audit and describes the use of the culture audit results to begin interaction with stakeholders relative to the school improvement process. The emphasis…

This book is an effort to document ideas, processes, and outcomes based on input from many people involved in accountability of interagency collaborative services programs. The goals, processes, instruments, and reporting systems presented have been developed through a team process over a 10-year period of involvement with Iowa's School-Based…

This study examined the data selection process preceding multivariate analysis for a data set measuring student motivation and self-regulated learning. Data were 138 responses to a questionnaire on motivation and self-regulated learning, adapted for Finnish students. The first goal was to compare the results gained with "gentle" and…

An environmental scanning process was used to solicit opinions about the future of Columbia Basin College, Washington, from various interest groups. The interest groups were formed to research topics and areas important to the future of the college. Ten interest groups, with a total of 37 members, were founded and the scanning process was also…

This report describes and evaluates the methods and procedures used for the field test of the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B:2000/01). The B&B:2000/01 field test included important changes from previous B&B surveys (conducted in 1994 and 1997) in its sample design and collection of data. The introductory chapter…

This Digest summarizes the results of a survey administered to the American Educational Research Associations Survey Research Special Interest Group regarding the use of electronic surveys and discusses their responses in the context of the existing literature base. Topics include the conditions under which use of e-mail or Web-based surveys would…

This report focuses on findings from the 5-year use of the Graduating Student Questionnaire (GSI) by member schools of the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) and in the interpretation of these findings. The GSI is used in the ATS Student Information Project along with the Entering Student Questionnaire. At the end of the 2000-2001 academic…

This guide provides recommendations for collecting accurate, comparable, and useful data about virtual education in an elementary/secondary education setting. Its goals are to: (1) identify components common to many education information systems that are necessary to meet the information needs of policymakers, administrators, instructors, and…

This study examines key theoretical principles of learning-oriented evaluation for HRD programs. Practical guidelines for the implementation of learning-oriented evaluation are also developed based on the related literature. This study suggests that evaluation should be a learning process in which information and knowledge are socially constructed…