Medical products are required to disclose both their intended outcomes and known side effects. Educational policy and practice, however, carries no such labels. Thus, teachers, school leaders, and the public are not told, for example, that "this program helps improve your students' reading scores, but it may make them hate reading…

Producing analyses that are accurate, timely, and simple is a constant challenge for institutional researchers. The stakes are high: when the analysis is incomplete, arrives too late, does not adequately address the question, or is simply too much to comprehend, decision makers fall back on anecdotal thinking or gut-level reactions that can lead…

The relationship between the level of researchers' dependency on funding sources and their considerations for choosing to turn to certain funding sources is examined. Monetary and non-monetary aspects of these considerations are explored. University researchers and federal government agencies have a long history of collaboration for purposes of…

Information is one of the most important tools education decision makers need to help them effectively spend taxpayer money, allocate qualified staff, and determine the effectiveness of education investments. Decision makers must understand the role and influence of monetary and staff resources on the education system, and they must have…

Efforts focused on improving quality processes based upon the Malcolm Baldrige Education Criteria for Performance Excellence may hold promise for fundamentally improving K-12 education. This policy report examines the information available on improving school quality through implementation of the Baldrige criteria. It provides a snapshot of what…