Examines the difficulties the electric industry's deregulation created for St. Joseph's University's (Philadelphia) development of a thermal ice-storage system as part of its HVAC design and the school's solution. A monthly equipment summary sheet with year-to-date figures is provided. (GR)

Discusses the history, uses, and ongoing development of the Common Core of Data (CCD). Describes the six surveys of the CCD, explores issues in survey and data quality, and discusses recent and ongoing developments. (Author/SLD)

Describes the eventful history of online data collection and presents a review of current literature following by a list of pros and cons to be considered when stepping into online surveying. (Contains 14 references.) (Author/YDS)

Discusses qualitative methods of impact analysis and provides an introductory treatment of one such approach. Combines an awareness of an alternative causal epistemology with current knowledge of qualitative methods of data collection and measurement to produce an approach to the analysis of impacts. (SLD)

This document discusses the importance of data-quality and presents three simple steps that can help lay the framework for an over all data-quality strategy. The first step is to ask some rather simple questions, such as: (1) How much data does the organization have, how fast is it creating new data, and how many redundant copies are there?; and…

This article describes how information gap tasks can be designed as instruments for data collection and analysis and as treatments in interaction research. The development of such tasks is illustrated and data are presented on their role in drawing learners' attention to second language (L2) forms that are difficult to notice through classroom…

Suffering from data overload? Many schools are. Although schools have lacked sufficient student achievement data to make good instructional decisions in the past, many are now snowed under with data. They are data rich but analysis poor. How can content, vertical, or interdisciplinary school teams make sense of all their data? How can principals…

Learning cycle investigations allow science students to model the activities of real scientists. An important step in modeling is data collection, which can present a problem in an astronomy course. The celestial body being studied often is unobservable for various reasons. (Contains 3 figures.)

Certain challenges are inherent in collecting data to evaluate nonformal education programs and settings. One challenge relates to the complexity of the educational system in which nonformal learning takes place. Separating the learning effects of a nonformal education program on participants from the effects of other essential elements of their…

While the idea of data collection is new for many library media specialists, traditional statistics such as circulation, age, value, total collection numbers, class use of the library media center, etc. have been gathered since the dawn of library time. Typically these statistics are gathered simply because it has always been done, but library…

With the emergence of a new generation of strong and empowered female student leaders on college campuses, a special type of female leader, the Alpha Female, has developed. This study examines the essence of having an Alpha Female identity for 13 undergraduate women at a Midwestern university. Extensive interviews were conducted; transcripts were…

Whether a study is qualitative or quantitative, the process of data collection is not as orderly as it may seem when described in published research reports, articles, or books. Data collection may be more challenging when conducting research across national and linguistic borders. In this article, I share and reflect upon the complex and messy…

Securing data on students' academic achievement is typically one of the most important and costly aspects of conducting education experiments. As state assessment programs have become practically universal and more uniform in terms of grades and subjects tested, the relative appeal of using state tests as a source of study outcome measures has…

The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has endorsed a "Closing the Gap" agenda designed to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians. The agenda is distilled in a series of targets, one of which is the goal of halving the gap for Indigenous students in Year 12 attainment or equivalent (Certificate II or above) attainment rates by…

This report presents the number of high school graduates, the Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate (AFGR), and dropout data for grades 9 through 12 for public schools in school year 2006-07. The counts of graduates, dropouts, and enrollments by grade (which serve as the denominators for the graduation and dropout rates) are from the National Center…