This report documents how four state education agencies are supporting local data-driven decisionmaking through their policies, practices, and programs for creating data systems, improving data access and use, and building district and school capacity to use data. Specifically, this report, responding to District of Columbia Office of State…

This report documents how four state education agencies are supporting local data-driven decisionmaking through their policies, practices, and programs for creating data systems, improving data access and use, and building district and school capacity to use data. Responding to District of Columbia Office of State Superintendent of Education and…

This document is intended to assist State Education Agency (SEA) and Lead Agency (LA) staff and technical assistance providers in designing a meaningful evaluation for the State Performance Plan (SPP)/Annual Performance Report (APR) improvement activities. It provides: (1) information about the relevance of evaluation in the context of improvement…

Discusses five critical issues that affect the relationship between the professor of educational administration and the state governance of education in the United States. (Author/IRT)

This report analyzes the uses of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part B discretionary/set-aside, administrative, and flow-through funds for school reform activities. Telephone interviews were held with state directors of special education or staff from nine state education agencies (California, New Mexico, Iowa, Illinois,…

This report outlines the activities and impact of the Massachusetts Dissemination Project, a capacity-building program funded from 1976 to 1982 to further the dissemination of information on educational resources in Massachusetts. Major project outcomes are listed, including the production of two serials entitled Resources for Schools (26 issues)…

There is a continuing need in evaluation research for the establishment of a relationship between evaluation findings and decision making. A method is proposed for a particular situation: annual funding decisions for projects in a large grant program in vocational education. Outcome and predictive impact variables were ranked by three groups of…

The existing crises in the schools show a need for some systematic method of planning that leaves little to chance or opinion and which rests more on the scientific techniques of problem solving. Although the use of a systems approach in public programs is just beginning, it seems to hold considerable promise for education. Hence, the Nevada State…

This report presents results of a study of five state and local computer-based special education management information systems (MISs). Descriptions are provided of the five MISs used for reporting and decision-making in special education, the planning and implementation processes used by the states and districts, and the general benefits that…

Research relevant to instructional improvement has usually been conducted from one of three perspectives: the adoption of improvements in the classroom, the dissemination of information about improvements to practitioners, or the relationship between adoption of improvements and the administrative organization of the adopting agency. This paper…

This document reports on the efforts of the South Carolina State Department of Education to develop a comprehensive educational planning capability. An assessment model and a dynamic model were developed to help in the identification of educational needs and in the evaluation of public education in the State. The assessment model relates…

This annual publication is designed to show North Carolina's rank among the states on a wide variety of educational and related statistics. This information may be useful for a number of planning and evaluation purposes. Data are presented in the following areas: (1) population; (2) enrollment and attendance; (3) faculty; (4) general financial…

The seven issues discussed represent a consolidation of the larger number of urgent educational problems that faced the States in 1966, as well as those identified by the Steering Committee of the Education Commission of the States at a meeting in December of that year. The issues were first assigned as paper discussion topics, the writing of…

The Michigan Assessment Program was proposed and designed to provide an improved information base for research and planning. Its assumptions were that education is an important investiment in human welfare, both school and non-school inputs influence educational performance, educational services are inequitably distributed, and resources available…

A survey of 42 statewide assessment programs was conducted to determine: (1) The status of statewide assessment programs in the United States when classified by purpose, authority, methodology, and scope; (2) Are there any differences within these classifications for programs which are aimed primarily at state-level decision making as opposed to…