It is often difficult and costly to obtain individual-level student achievement data, yet, researchers are frequently reluctant to use school-level achievement data that are widely available from state websites. We argue that public-use aggregate school-level achievement data are, in fact, sufficient to address a wide range of evaluation questions…

Objectives of Title I evaluations are to document: (1) use by local staff and parents; (2) other types of information used by local staff and parents in judging and in improving their program; and (3) implications of these findings for the current Federal Title I evaluation strategy. (Author/RL)

Flexner's report on the procedures, agents, and effects of medical school accreditation emphasizes common sense and unstructured observation, rather than objective social science. Flexner would probably declare that lay people, rather than the National Education Association or the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, should…

Instructional information systems gather and link together data on pupil characteristics, pupil performance on tests, instructional methods, and attitudes and opinions. Results from a study of two instructional information systems indicate that even well-designed systems will only influence decision making under certain conditions. (BW)