This presentation will discuss quality appraisal methods for assessing research studies used in systematic reviews, research syntheses, and evidence-based practice repositories such as the What Works Clearinghouse. The different ways that the methodological rigor and risk of bias of primary studies included in syntheses is assessed means that…

This article explores the promises and pitfalls of using National Student Clearinghouse (NSC) data to measure a variety of postsecondary outcomes. We first describe the history of the NSC, the basic structure of its data, and recent research interest in using NSC data. Second, using information from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data…

Students, policymakers and institutions all need to have high quality data about how today's students access and pay for higher education--and what contributes to their success. But the data that are available now are woefully inadequate. We need to improve the national postsecondary data infrastructure The report thoroughly explores seven options…

This paper reports on progress to date with a project underway in New Zealand involving the extraction of data from multiple government agencies that is then combined into one comprehensive longitudinal integrated dataset and made available to trial participants in a way never previously thought possible. The dataset includes school leaver…

The prominence of discourse on postsecondary degree completion, student persistence, and retention has increased in the national dialogue. Heightened attention to college completion rates by the federal government and pressure to tie state funding to performance metrics associated with graduation rates are catalysts for the discussion.…

The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB)-State Data Exchange is a cooperative effort of the SREB and the statewide higher education governing and coordinating boards in the South. Founded in 1969-1970, it is one of the nation's oldest, most comprehensive sources of comparative data on public higher education. The Data Exchange annually…

The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB)-State Data Exchange is a one-of-a-kind regional program with 23 statewide higher education governing and coordinating board partners. The Data Exchange annually collects, compiles, and publishes: (1) the most current and detailed comparative statistics on postsecondary education in the 16 SREB states;…

This report documents strategies that can be used to initiate development of a technical skill test item bank and/or assessment clearinghouse and quantifies the cost of creating and maintaining such a system. It is intended to inform state administrators on the potential uses and benefits of system participation, test developers on the needs and…

Education leaders across the country confront a growing challenge: too many students are not college ready when they leave high school. Although indicators exist to identify students at risk of dropping out of high school, few indicators of students' college readiness are currently in place, and few districts have linked indicators to practices…

The Federal Government could upgrade proprietary school accreditation by improving its internal systems, coordinating federal programs, establishing an information clearinghouse and technical assistance institute, and supporting a change to a time-limited licensing system. (Author/DW)

This guide describes ERIC as an information system sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education that gathers, selects, abstracts, and indexes documents and articles on a wide range of education topics. The guide provides information on the following: (1) how to get started using ERIC; (2) how to use a computer to access the ERIC database; (3) how…

Written for potential users of ERIC, this digest provides basic facts about the information storage and retrieval system, the migrant education materials available, and the role of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools (ERIC/CRESS). The following questions are answered: (1) what is ERIC and how does it work; (2) what…

A needs assessment was conducted with six stakeholder groups in Ohio concerned with school-to-work (STW) transition (including educators on all levels, teacher educators, and administrators of STW regions, tech prep consortia, and Private Industry Councils) to determine if they need and would use a proposed STW clearinghouse. The needs assessment…

Describes the development, benefits, and current status of ESCALATE (Establishment of a Statewide Computer-Assisted Library to Advance Transfer Equivalencies), an online, interactive system for disseminating information about the transfer equivalency of community college and four-year college courses developed by the Michigan Association of…

This guide describes ERIC (the Educational Resources Information Center) as a system of 16 clearinghouses and 5 support units providing many types of information services related to education, and also describes ERIC as a bibliographic database where descriptions of education-related documents and articles are maintained. It explains how to get…