The efforts of the Austin (Texas) Public School District to improve the readability and usefulness of technical reports are reviewed. Coincident with, or consequent to, a 1977 letter by W. E. Jones to the editor of an Austin paper (the "Austin American Statesman") complaining about excessively lengthy (500-page) evaluation reports, the…

Examples of the difficulties that public school program evaluators can have in explaning perplexing results are provided. Arguments abound over the best way to report a finding that has multiple interpretations or presentation options, and the enigma of realizing that one way to report a finding is not the only way, or even necessarily the best…