Many states and school districts are rethinking how they do educational assessment. A few are going further: attempting to build "balanced," "comprehensive," or "next-generation" assessment systems. At the same time, practitioners and researchers have long mulled the purposes and parts such systems should have. But…

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…

Teacher candidates have few opportunities during their teacher preparation coursework to investigate practices associated with eliciting and responding to student writing. This article describes an attempt to address this problem with a searchable online digital archive of student writing, with and without teachers' written feedback, as well…

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…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the design and implementation of music courseware that features a music search system that uses impression keywords. The paper applies the courseware to "Kansei" (sensibility) development for elementary and junior high school students. The objectives of this courseware are to cultivate…

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) provides several funding opportunities that can assist states in designing, developing, and implementing statewide education longitudinal data systems. These new and enhanced information systems will enable states to track student progress within and across the secondary and postsecondary education…

One of the challenges limiting the capability for analysis of educational issues is that data on school enrollments, staffing, and financing are collected through separate but annually conducted universe surveys. Because the data are collected and provided by separate agencies, the available data from the nation's school districts are often…

Imagine if, at the start of the school year, a teacher could have detailed information about the academic history of every student in her or his classroom. This is possible if the teacher can log on to a Web site that provides access to an educational data warehouse. The teacher would see not only several years of state assessment results, but…