Modern computing technology makes it possible for governments at all levels to use the data they already collect to improve service coordination and delivery, and to conduct research and evaluation to inform policymaking. California is well behind other states in taking advantage of this opportunity, in education and in other fields. The state has…

This report summarizes the deliberations and recommendations of the California Advisory Task Force on Alternative Schools (Task Force). The Task Force is a public service project of the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and their Communities at Stanford University and is convened in collaboration with the California Department of Education (CDE). A…

Recovery of significant achievements by exemplary individuals and institutions in public education and librarianship informs our present understanding and motivates future efforts. This narrative history recounts some of the struggles and successes of a great city library when the very conception of a free, public library was still being defined.…

In 2001, Indiana officials at the Department of Education were taking stock. The schools had an excellent network infrastructure and had installed significant numbers of computers for 1 million public school enrollees. Yet students were spending less than an hour a week on the computer. It was then that state officials knew each student needed a…

The importance of cooperative development among and exchange between university information systems is discussed. Cooperative developments in the California State University and Colleges System and exchange efforts between university systems in other states are described. (Author/BH)

The decline in Federal funding for state-provided social services during the 1980s triggered a transformation in the states' roles in family policymaking. This booklet documents four state initiatives designed to bring about systems change: (1) Healthy Start (California); (2) the Governor's Families and Children Initiative (Colorado); (3) the…

An overview is provided of progress in the development of a management information system for the California community colleges. First, background is presented on the current Uniform Statewide Reporting System (USRS), and problems with the system are identified and discussed (i.e., lack of student outcome information, unintegrated data, lack of…

A fourth year study of project SAM (Student Accountability Model), initially an effort to provide a system of procedures for collecting data on community college occupational students during and after their stay in college, was expanded to devise a system for incorporating nonoccupational students into the SAM model. The primary objective of the…

Results of the first year's operation of EUREKA (a computerized system to provide current, accurate, and locally relevant labor market and educational information to California high school students and counselors for the purposes of career exploration and decision making) are presented in this report. The general project design is outlined: (1)…

A descriptive model of the Fire Education Resources Information System (FERIS) is examined in this document. Information regarding educational materials relating to fire prevention, protection, and suppression is discussed. A description of the model is presented in two sections. Section 1, Problem Definition, surveys the background and needs for…

This handbook presents the essential components of a comprehensive family service system for low-income families. It shows, through the documentation and description of two low-income African American communities over 4 years of development work, the types of information that should be collected about community functioning so that informed…

The California Manpower Management Information System (CMMIS) Project reported here was done to provide a means of coordinating manpower supply and demand information with pertinent demographic information which will enable state, regional, and local agencies to fulfill various legislative mandates and legal responsibilities. This report covers…