An overview of educational evaluation literature is followed by summaries of research on both the perceptions of school principals about their awareness and use of evaluation in decision-making and their evaluation behavior. New lines of research on evaluation for decision-making as a learning process are offered. (MLF)

Efforts to achieve greater decentralization, deregulation, and management by objectives in the public sector have left an indelible mark on the school sector in Sweden during the 1980s. The experimental scheme of local agencies and free municipalities illustrates two such reforms. Under the free municipality experiment, a number of municipalities…

As institutional research or outcome assessment becomes more commonplace in institutions of higher education, the issue of what opportunities this presents to researchers desiring to move past relatively routine reporting into the more creative aspects of the profession becomes more prominent. Several possible roles emerge as a result of the…

Concepts of costs and cost analysis in higher education are examined, along with how to prepare for a cost study. Specific cost analysis techniques are identified, along with types of data generated and potential problems. In preparing for cost studies, it is important to consider: purpose, types of cost analysis, types of cost, common…

Designed as a means of promoting research and exchanging results among the members of the Texas Association for Community Service and Continuing Education's (TACSCE's) Research Committee, this Research Annual provides a compilation of articles, abstracts, annotations, and book reviews. The volume contains: (1) "Perspective: The Role of Scholarship…

The way that a college can transform its periodic self-study process into an ongoing program is addressed, with a focus on the contribution of the institutional research office. Also considered are data elements that self-studies most often require and the way that data elements relate to judgments and interpretations made through the self-study.…

This volume presents five papers on higher education institutional research in Maryland, all of which were originally presented at annual meetings of the Maryland Association for Institutional Research from 1993 through 1995. The first paper is "A Day in the Life of an Institutional Researcher: Past, Present and Future" (Merill…

These three serial issues focus on the characteristics and administration of developmental education programs. The following articles are featured: (1) "Characteristics of Successful Programs," which reviews research findings concerning the characteristics associated with effective and ineffective developmental programs and includes a list of…