While designs of professional learning have expanded exponentially beyond the required-attendance inservice day workshop model, infusing meaningful data into daily decisions and conversations has not gained as much traction. Leaders of professional learning are increasingly coming under pressure to demonstrate that evidence is not an anathema in…

As external forces demand change in the delivery of postsecondary education and institutions seek to take advantage of new opportunities, the potential for achieving higher levels of student and institutional success is vast. New technologies, communication tools, data use, and organizational constructs present key factors in improving the…

Intended to introduce librarians to social science concepts relevant to the future of librarianship, this essay explores Birdsall's thesis that librarians belong to a special class of professions that share knowledge with their clients, and that the problems of these professions are political as well as social and economic. (EM)

Guidelines to facilitate the assessment and development of educational leadership decision-making skills are presented in this paper. Included are a review of traditional and contemporary concepts of the decision-making process, identification of appropriate techniques, and an analysis of four contemporary decision-making models by Thompson,…

To be useful for management decision making, the college or university's cost accounting system must capture and measure improvements. Activity-based costing (ABC), which determines more accurately the full costs of services and products, tracks improvements and should proceed alongside reengineering of institutional accounting. Guidelines are…

Data and information needs of college administrators are discussed, along with the uses of information to support decisionmaking. Difficulties in applying information technology to the administration of higher education are briefly reviewed. Data and information are discussed both in definitional and functional terms. Data are defined as either…

Selecting an appropriate school district information system means obtaining the best features while sacrificing few that are desirable. Evaluation criteria include scope of work; integration of modules; accuracy of attendance module; checking "power" for attendance; a fast scheduler; graduation requirements capabilities; and before adoption,…

Class-size reduction (CSR) has been a complex and contentious issue for the last quarter century. Although the small-class concept was adopted because it appealed to common sense, research over time has revealed a mix of confounding variables, instead of a definitive conclusion. Some CSR efforts, such as Tennessee's Project STAR and Wisconsin's…

How television can be used to develop and reinforce important citizenship traits is discussed. Described are student activities dealing with acquiring and using information, assessing information, making decisions, making judgments, communicating ideas to others, cooperating with others, and promoting and protecting one's interests. (RM)

Reviews some of the problems involved in the evaluation of educational software, and describes a classroom-based case study approach to software evaluation intended for application by autonomous self-programming groups of teachers. (20 references) (Author/CLB)

Addresses the issue of utilization of program evaluation information in public schools. Provides perspectives on utilization of evaluation information derived from knowledge utilization theory and research. Describes a set of program evaluation guidelines. Reports a meta-evaluation of the application of the guidelines in public schools. (Author)

Program presentations on issues related to the use of statistics by research libraries and business meeting minutes are combined in this report from the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). The full text is provided for the three papers on the program theme that were presented at the meeting: (1) "Information to Manage--The Economics of…

The evolution of college and university planning is examined through a review of theory and a case study of DePaul University (Illinois). The discussion focuses on the evolving role for institutional research in strategic decision making and the new skills and knowledge researchers need to support strategic planning more effectively. (MSE)

The preparation and use of data needed to make objective, useful comparisons in higher education are considered. The needs for comparative data in higher education, including demands for accountability and strategic planning, are reviewed. In addition, data-related problems are considered: problems of narrowness, misrepresentation, sameness,…

To increase the value of administrative information for universitywide decision making, the office of institutional research at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University has undertaken a project to standardize data elements and codes across all administrative systems and institutionalize an ongoing standardization process. (Author/MSE)