Determining whether a state's young people are on track for a life of opportunity is a difficult task for governors and state leaders. States can be both awash in data and unable to easily access and use that data to inform policy. State longitudinal data systems that meaningfully connect workforce, higher education, K-12, and early childhood…

Communities across the country are grappling with different approaches to improving their schools. Introducing or expanding charter schools is one of the approaches that states and school districts have considered or implemented. Charter schools serve more than 5 percent of public school students nationwide and make up close to 7 percent of all…

Federal education policy in recent years has encouraged state and local education agencies to embrace data use and analysis in decision-making, ranging from policy development and implementation to performance evaluation. The capacity of these agencies to make effective and methodologically sound use of collected data for these purposes remains an…

A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted using AMOS 4.0 to validate the 21-item Career Factors Inventory on a community college student sample. The multidimensional inventory assesses types and levels of career indecision antecedents. The sample consisted of 512 ethnically diverse freshmen students; 46% were men and 54% were women.…

This study presents a detailed evaluation of the impact and effectiveness of Title I of the Library Services and Construction Act (LSCA), a federal program designed to assist state efforts to develop and improve public libraries, and examines the policy implications of these results as they relate to the future of federal involvement in public…

The influence of location as exemplified by neighbourhood factors and school characteristics on primary education is examined in the context of the school choice movement of the last two decades. The analysis incorporates statistical information about schools and population data from Census 2000 describing neighbourhoods and schools in one…

This publication provides macro-indicators and complementary analyses and supporting data for use by policy and decision makers concerned with Ontario universities. These analytical tools are meant to unambiguously measure what is taking place in Canadian postsecondary education, and therefore, assist in focusing on what decisions need to be made.…

This report details enrollment projections for the public colleges and universities in Maryland through the year 2005. There are headcount projections for each higher education institution, with breakdowns by full- and part-time undergraduates and, as applicable, full- and part-time graduate/professional students. Projections are based on the…

Project MAP (Model Accounting Plan) is designed to test a demographic system for monitoring the within-school and post-school transitions of special education participants. Implemented at the local level, this system produces data to inform school-level decision-making. In addition, the data that are produced can be aggregated for use at higher…

A basic technical framework is provided for the design and use of mastery tests. The Mastery Testing Project (MTP) prepared this framework using advanced mathematics supplemented with computer simulation based on real test data collected by the South Carolina Statewide Testing Program. The MTP focused on basic technical issues encountered in using…