The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association's (SHEEO) "Communities of Practice" project builds upon SHEEO's ongoing efforts to measure the capacity and effective use of state postsecondary data systems and provides states with opportunities to develop solutions to common issues with those systems. The sixth Community of…

When many people hear the term "big data", they primarily think of a technology tool for the collection and reporting of data of high variety, volume, and velocity. However, the complexity of big data is not only the technology, but the supporting processes, policies, and people supporting it. This paper was written by three experts to…

Higher education administrators lack strong understanding about using course evaluation data to make judgments and decisions. Using archival student course evaluation data from a pharmacy school, we examined (a) course evaluation instrument reliability and validity; (b) bivariate relationships between eight course rating items and the overall…

In early 2015, the Reform Support Network brought together State department of education leaders from Colorado, Delaware, New Jersey and Tennessee to discuss strategies for refining and sustaining high-quality educator evaluation systems. During the convening, representatives from the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) explained how the…

The purpose of this study was to examine the difference between students' scores in comprehension (English Language Arts) tests when they are led in Brain Gym® activities before class instruction and when they are taught using traditional teaching strategies. The sample for this study consisted of 11 males and 9 females. Data were collected by…

This report analyzes 1990-91 "report card" data for Tennessee's schools, making comparisons to earlier studies when appropriate. Of particular importance are the analyses of the relationships among 15 school district characteristics and mean student outcomes (scores from Tennessee's Comprehensive Testing Program and the Tennessee…

Accurately estimating the number of female high school administrators is difficult because (1) comprehensive studies by individual position are nonexistent; (2) most state departments of education do not collect or report such data; (3) limited samples are used in studies; and (4) researchers and reporters tend to aggregate positions. Researchers…

The purpose of this study was to identify the beliefs of Tennessee principals and teachers about the knowledge and skills required of leaders when using data to improve educational decision-making. Personal interviews were conducted with 10 principals and 10 teacher leaders certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.…

Crime and vandalism on farms is possibly a symptom of rural youth delinquency and of concern to rural educators. This study of experience of Tennessee farmers with crime and vandalism is intended to provide a measure of the present social condition of rural society. Questionnaires were mailed to a weighted sample of farm operators in all Tennessee…

This study analyzes the cost effectiveness of a telephone survey, using data collected from a survey of 110 Tennessee public school superintendents. The subject of the survey was the status and need for elementary guidance. A telephone survey approach was selected based on time and cost factors, since information had to be completed in the…

This paper reports on research that examined longitudinal data on students entering Tennessee Board of Regents institutions of higher education after the implementation of a state-mandated developmental studies program. The program identifies and helps at-risk students to persist in college to graduation. Data analysis is presented from a 1986…

Researchers looked at participation in decision-making as perceived by 2,056 teachers, principals, central office personnel, and superintendents in Tennessee. They also looked at both satisfaction in relation to six decision categories and attitudes toward unionization. Teachers' self-perceptions of participation in policy decision-making…

The Tennessee Board of Regents systemwide report card and individual report cards for each of the 14 community colleges are presented. The purpose of developing this report card was to respond to the public's increased calls for accountability in higher education. The report cards--47 in all, one for the system and one for each of the 46…

During the 1989-90 school year, Tennessee established Project Challenge in 17 of Tennessee's poor and educationally low-performing counties. The program applied the results of Project STAR, a longitudinal experiment causally linking class size to student achievement. This paper presents findings of a study that evaluated Project Challenge by…

Investigators completed a series of studies of data reported in Tennessee's 1988-89 school district cards, and compared these with 1990-91 school district report cards. The relationships among 15 school district variables and relationships between each variable and student outcomes were determined. The 1990-91 report cards contain results of the…