This guide is intended to help planners and trainers assess the training needs of industrial organizations. Addressed in the individual chapters are the following topics: types of training needs (three levels of needs--organizational, occupational, individual, organizational training needs and objectives, and present and future needs); present…

Recommendations of the Study Group on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are summarized in this report. The report is then reviewed by the National Academy of Education. The recommendations are to: (1) maintain NAEP's continuity; (2) assess the core curriculum; (3) focus on transitional grades (4, 8, and 12) and sample…

Phase III of the Louisiana School Effectiveness Study (LSES-III) was designed in part to obtain rich, qualitative data on the characteristics of more and less effective schools in the Gulf South. Data were gathered on eight matched outlier pairs of schools during the 1984-1985 school year. Of the eight historically ineffective schools in LSES-III,…

A project was undertaken to develop and field-test new methodologies for collecting follow-up and placement data on completers of Miami-Dade Community College (MDCC). Strategies used in the study included exploration of such nontraditional data sources as in- and out-of-state private university transfers, state university system tapes for all…

This paper explores ways in which technology (especially microcomputers) can improve the access to and utility of educational data for school improvement efforts. The paper focuses on the product and project options available to the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory's Database and School Profiling program, which offers technical and…

The Institute for Research on Educational Finance and Governance (IFG) has designed and implemented a major survey of public and private schools in the six-county San Francisco Bay Area which focuses on organizational dimensions in elementary and secondary schools. Private schools include Catholic parochial and private schools, independent…

Factors affecting the return rate of a mailed questionnaire were investigated. A survey was mailed to 196 students who had dropped out of home study courses offered by a distance education university. The effects of personalizing the cover letter and of including anonymous pre-coded personal information on the questionnaire were studied in a 2 X 2…

The problems existing during the reorganization of the Cleveland School District into a unitary administration are presented from the perspective of the head of the Research and Analysis Department. The district had been fighting a desegregation case for 9 years and operating in a receivership with a triple bureaucracy imposed upon it (the normal…

This manual includes strategies for conducting wave 4 of a longitudinal follow-up study. Part 1, Procedures for Researchers, outlines steps to be used in guiding the research process to achieve indepth, qualitative interviews with a group of the original sample members who were studied over a 15-year period. It includes guidelines and procedures…

A study examined the various laws and practices in six states regarding nonmonetary eligibility for state unemployment insurance programs and assessed the effects of these laws and policies on the states' ability to identify and reject unemployment insurance claimants who fail to meet the requirements. Eligibility for unemployment insurance in all…

This student guide is intended to assist persons employed as supervisors in improving their knowledge and skills in the area of quality control. Discussed in the first three sections are the following topics: quality and control (quality, measuring and achieving quality, controlling resources, and quality consciousness); quality control and…

The education reform movement has inspired an impressive array of school improvement programs. This article categorizes these intitiatives, summarizes policy directions, explores recent state curriculum guidelines and Northwest trends, and discusses implementation challenges. According to an Education Commission of the States study, most…

In the future, elementary and secondary schools must regard their role as including tasks beyond educating individual students. Schools will have to provide certain functions which were traditionally provided by the home and the community. Based on this premise, there are implications for the functioning of schools and for the kinds of data needed…

The value of statistical research depends on valid comparisons which can usefully influence educational policy. Educational research needs to extend the measures of learning (such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress) through nationally-calibrated absolute measures and through computer-assisted and adaptive testing. Direct sampling…

The Teacher Assessment and Development System (TADS) - Meritorious Teacher Program (MTP) FORM instrument is used in the Dade County Public Schools, Miami, Florida, to evaluate teachers. Its validity for decisions concerning merit pay for master teachers was examined in this study. Specifically, its ability to discriminate between high performing…