Over the last decade, state efforts to build stronger data infrastructure and integrate data about early childhood services have continued to grow. A stronger data infrastructure supports states in more easily linking data across programs, which in turn makes it easier to analyze and use that data to answer important policy questions. An Early…

In 1987, the Arizona legislature began a process of establishing statewide goals for the improvement of the state's educational system. A joint legislative committee developed specific goals in the areas of student achievement, high school graduation rate, and postschool employment and college enrollment. To produce the baseline data necessary in…

The Education Commission of the States conducted interviews in six school districts in five different states (California, Colorado, Iowa, Maryland, and Texas) to understand how districts can use data most effectively. These districts had used data to dramatically improve student achievement. Districts that make wise use of data have strong…

School leaders are developing a "just-in-time" approach to research and data analysis to help inform and shape their decisions. Careful analysis of data can reveal patterns that can be improved. The key is to focus districts' research and analysis on the issues that will make the biggest difference in terms of student, teacher, and…

This report presents six papers originally prepared for a policy panel meeting which explored the data ramifications of changes within postsecondary education brought about through the expanded use of technology. Following an executive summary and an introduction, the major papers are: (1) "The Growth of Technology-Based Educational Delivery…

High schools are increasingly expected to use data for improvement and to provide evidence that programs and instructional practices are preparing all students to develop essential knowledge and skills. This publication describes how schools can develop the capacity to analyze and use data as a core component of improving secondary schools using…

This manual is designed to familiarize data users with the procedures followed for data collection and processing of the base-year school component of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88). A corollary objective is to provide the necessary documentation for use of the data files. The manual provides a wide range of…

This guide aims to facilitate research and policy analysis in rural education by linking substantive issues to the data sources of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). The guide may be used in two ways: as a handy tool for scanning NCES data that are presented with immediately applicable issues; and to stimulate, with sample…

This manual will familiarize data users with the procedures followed for data collection and processing of the base-year teacher component of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988. A corollary objective is to provide the necessary documentation for use of the data files. The manual provides a wide range of information on topics related…

A state educational indicator system being developed by the Pennsylvania Educational Policy Studies (PEPS) project at the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) is described. The extensive database that has been established as part of the PEPS project includes thousands of variables that are descriptive of the 500 Pennsylvania school districts.…

To help government agency representatives and community leaders understand local population trends, particularly in rapid growth situations, this publication outlines a simple framework for analyzing population changes and provides useful criteria that can be applied when considering management and policy alternatives. It is noted that two…

Information available on rural education remains startlingly inadequate--partly because of the great diversity of rural areas, because agencies responsible for data collection disagree on the definition of small/rural schools, and because large metropolitan schools have received far more than their share of attention, research, and financial…

Describes procedures needed to analyze large-scale databases. Presents two examples of how French educational researchers have utilized data from the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) studies of mathematics and reading literacy. Includes one table and three figures illustrating these techniques. (CFR)

This report synthesizes the results of activities of the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) focused on determining whether secondary data analysis of state and/or national data collection programs could produce policy-relevant reports on the status of children and youth with disabilities. The report describes methodology and findings…

This study evaluated the first phase of a three-phase project to improve baccalaureate achievement rates of minority students in Colorado. The activities of the first phase included gathering more and better data on the progress of students, analyzing those data, and using that analysis to choose and visit institutions that seem to be succeeding…