National databases are not necessarily useful for specific school district needs. Participating sites in the High Schools that Work program have adapted several data collection procedures from national studies to serve their own information needs and assess the effectiveness of local program changes. (SK)

This article provides ideas on how to conduct alumni telephone surveys: (1) use the information gathered; (2) implement a survey; (3) develop appropriate questions; (4) test a survey instrument; (5) train interviewers; (6) collect the data; (7) analyze the results; (8) report the results; and (9) use the results to take action. (MDM)

This article provides advice on how to plan and conduct an alumni census through the mail, drawing on the experiences of Stonehill College in North Easton, Massachusetts, which undertook such a survey in 1992. It focuses on costs, information needs, questionnaire design, mailing considerations, reporting the results, and expected response rates.…

Examines ways in which elementary school teachers organize their workplace behaviors as they respond to computers in their schools. Data was collected via extensive observation and formal interviewing in nine elementary schools. Findings revealed that teachers shape the meaning of computer technology through avoidance, integration, and technical…

Explores a quality control investigation with baseballs. Students were placed in groups of three to handle specific jobs: data recorder, measurement-instrument handler, and instrument reader. Includes assessment instruments and a list of suggested investigations. (MKR)

Drawing on British data, this article discusses issues involved in analyzing educational indicator data. Gross productivity, new productivity, and inequality are discussed as types of indicators that describe interdistrict variation in Great Britain. Recommendations are made regarding features of an educational assessment that would be necessary…

Discusses current theme in education, finding methodology for inservice courses through which skills and attitudes of teachers can be appropriately developed. Attempts to help teachers develop awareness of process by which learning takes place on an INSET course, to make process explicit to themselves and, in doing so, make this awareness…

Dallas school district attempted to determine whereabouts of students who did not return to school in fall. Found a large portion of "no-show" students matriculating elsewhere. Previously, these students would have been classified as dropouts and used to determine the dropout rate. The new accounting procedure reduced the annual dropout rate from…

Discussion of journal pricing and its effects on academic libraries focuses on data from the Optical Society of America's pricing study that used price per 1,000 words as a quantitative evaluative tool. Data collection methodology is described, and implications of the results for library collection development are suggested. (eight references)…

An example of real-world data is used to introduce comprehensible and visual images of the data and their attributes and relationships. Stem-and-leaf plots, box-and-whisker plots, and scattergrams are used to encourage prompt recognition of data characteristics and to effect appropriate interpretations and inferences. (JJK)

Two articles discuss elementary school mathematics. One focuses on data collection, suggesting a children's counting book, "How Many Feet in the Bed?", to initiate several possible problems. The other offers a measuring activity for finding average heights and a survey activity to determine the characteristics of an average student. (SM)

Criteria to guide classroom assessment practice are determine the extent to which assessment practices are based on tasks and activities that are representative of instructional intention and translate into specific information collection, interpretation, evaluation, and reporting procedures; address the accuracy of the assessment; and consider…

InSight, a series of 10 HyperCard stacks, provides optometry students with first-hand experience with a number of visual phenomena and a variety of experimental data acquisition and analysis techniques. Each stack contains background information on the experiment topic, instructions, references to the literature, and questions to be answered.…

Explains a system designed by the Montgomery County Department of Public Libraries to develop objective data based on time costs to help make decisions regarding children's program resources. Budgets and library priorities are discussed, a form for gathering data on programs is provided, and suggestions for modifications for other libraries are…

This study examined placement patterns of students with severe disabilities in three states, to analyze factors influencing national monitoring and reporting of least restrictive environment issues. The study found that the means by which states collect child count data to report to the federal government are inadequate to meet present…