Obtaining accurate, comprehensive data for vocational education has been one of the more elusive objectives of federal policy. Given the long history of unsuccessful attempts to improve the quality and scope of data on vocational education, it is important to understand the lessons of the past before embarking on a new data collection effort…

Building on previous discussions of Federal information inventory locator systems (FILS), this report explores issues related to FILS and identifies policy and implementation options that can best meet the competing rationales and requirements for FILS. The concept of a Government-wide Information Inventory/Locator System is explored, and it is…

This paper examines existing research regarding the problem of school dropouts. It examines the historical context of the problem and discusses current definitions and methods for identifying dropout characteristics and computing dropout rates. Few incentives exist for accurate record-keeping on dropouts. School finances are often linked to…

The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) of the National Center for Education Statistics collects data from all sections of postsecondary education. For less-than-two-year institutions, the IPEDS collects data on fall enrollment, completions (earned awards and certificates), etc., from all public institutions in that category and…

The report is intended to provide educators, policy makers, legislators, and funding sources with the latest data on the progress of minorities in higher education. Included is information on high school completion and college participation rates for 18-to-24-year-olds. Data from the U.S. Department of Education's Higher Education General…

A wide gap exists between available information on community college students and the questions which are often posed about them. Since most available data focus on cross-sectional measures of enrollment and degrees awarded, they provide few insights into what happens to students who enter the colleges. The question-and-answer gap owes its…

The factors for an effective administrative task force are examined in this report on the Syracuse school superintendent's Issue Analysis Team. The team, composed of voluntary potential administrators, acts as a special task force to facilitate informed decision making by the school superintendent. Topics discussed are member selection, role…

The 1988 National Survey of Postsecondary Faculty surveyed 7,408 full- and part-time regular faculty, department chairpersons, and institutional representatives of 480 nonproprietary accredited U.S. institutions of higher education granting a two-year or higher degree. The survey, conducted between December 1987 and October 1988, examined…

This report provides testimony on results of a General Accounting Office (GAO) study of Chapter 1 Compensatory Education programs, Chapter 2 Education Block Grant programs, and dropout prevention programs. The report covers the following: (1) Chapter 1 student selection; (2) Chapter 1 fiscal provisions; (3) Chapter 2 data collection and…

In linguistic analysis of the speech act, the data used to support theoretical conclusions are too often comprised of semantically isolated utterances of the ideal speaker-hearer. In reality, one of the most revealing kinds of data is imperfect data, where the functioning language processes are often unmasked. The study of first language…

As a result of budget cuts and policy changes, health, nutrition, and social welfare programs have been rendered less able to help children and families, particularly those families hard hit by the recession. It is argued that there is no excuse for these cuts and that if the economy were growing and employment levels were high, the budget cuts…

Like the Elementary Secondary Education Act Title I, the Education Consolidation Improvement Act Chapter 1 requires school districts to determine at least once every 3 years whether Title I achievement gains are sustained over a period of 12 months or more. A local education agency (LEA) has considerable flexibility in the approach it takes in…

Based on the Kellian view of constructive alternativism (that the meanings of any idea are not fixed, but vary from individual to individual), this paper describes a technique for exploring school children's conceptions of common physical phenomena to allow science educators (1) to appreciate the alternative conceptions of their students and (2)…

This collection of documentation from library materials cost studies conducted by members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) member libraries in the United States and Canada contains 11 documents divided into the following sections: (1) methodologies and data collection worksheets from the University of California at Berkeley, the…

An overview is provided of progress in the development of a management information system for the California community colleges. First, background is presented on the current Uniform Statewide Reporting System (USRS), and problems with the system are identified and discussed (i.e., lack of student outcome information, unintegrated data, lack of…