In this project, students use a real-world, complex database and experience firsthand the consequences of inadequate data modeling. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency created the database as part of a multimillion dollar data collection effort undertaken in order to set limits on air pollutants from electric power plants. First, students…

Assessment and supporting data have become of increasing interest in librarianship. In this paper, we describe the development and implementation of the Northwestern University Library Acknowledgments Database tool, which gathers and documents qualitative data, as well as its component reporting function. This collaborative project and resulting…

Educational institutions and governing practices are increasingly augmented with digital database technologies that function as new kinds of policy instruments. This article surveys and maps the landscape of digital policy instrumentation in education and provides two detailed case studies of new digital data systems. The Learning Curve is a…

Based on a review of the existing literature on database design, this study proposed a unified database model to support corporate technology innovation. This study assessed potential support for the model based on the opinions of 200 technology industry executives, including Chief Information Officers, Chief Knowledge Officers and Chief Learning…

Because the relationship between computer use and achievement is still puzzling, there is a need to prepare and analyze good quality datasets on computer use and achievement. Such a dataset can be derived from TIMSS data. This paper describes how this dataset can be prepared. It also gives an example of how the dataset may be analyzed. The…

As data-based decision making is receiving increased attention in education, more and more school performance feedback systems (SPFSs) are being developed and used worldwide. These systems provide schools with data on their functioning. However, little research is available on the characteristics of the different SPFSs. Therefore, this study…

In this study, we develop a theoretical model to investigate the association between social network properties, "content richness" (CR) in academic learning discourse, and performance. CR is the extent to which one contributes content that is meaningful, insightful and constructive to aid learning and by social network properties we…

The IPEDS Analytics: Delta Cost Project Database was created to make data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) more readily usable for longitudinal analyses. Currently spanning the period from 1987 through 2010, it has a total of 202,800 observations on 932 variables derived from the institutional characteristics,…

Faced with rising demand for information about early childhood programs, states need to find tools and strategies to monitor the progress of and to identify high-quality early childhood programs. In response, REL Mid-Atlantic convened a regional workgroup for state personnel who work with the systems containing early childhood data. The workgroup…

The rise of a globalized knowledge economy requires nations to understand the distribution of skills and abilities in their populations. It is no longer sufficient to know how many resources are devoted to the development of nations' human capital. Today, nations also must be able to demonstrate and understand the outcomes of their educational…

California currently faces an opportunity to develop an effective data system that can assist in improving the state's future understanding of the educational progress of English learners (ELs). This policy brief outlines the needs for good data on ELs and makes recommendations for creating an effective longitudinal data system for ELs. It…

The purpose of this article is to describe a capstone course in undergraduate student geographical research in which GIS and other geospatial tools were used to teach undergraduate students basic geographical principles. The course uses the "cooperative learning" pedagogical approach to address one of a number of client-supplied research projects,…