This project aims to gain insight into the mechanisms by which schools in highly challenging environments avoided learning loss--or even improved--during the pandemic. Using a unique dataset covering multiple levels of school, health, and environmental data, we examine which factors led schools to 'beat the odds' when it comes to learning…

Teacher effort, a critical component of education production, has been largely ignored in the literature due to measurement difficulties. Using a principal-agent model, North Carolina public school data, and the state's unique accountability system that rewards teachers for school-level academic growth, we show that we can distill effort from…

This paper presents preliminary results from the National Study of Non-Credit Course Activity, which is funded by a grant from the Lumina Foundation. This research examines how non-credit data are collected and used by institutions, state and federal agencies, and national associations. An online survey was administered to all state SHEEO offices…

For a number of years, the California community colleges have used data from annual statewide surveys conducted by the Kern Community College District and the California Community College Trustees (CCCT) for comparative faculty salary information. Both the Kern and CCCT studies rely upon the device of selecting benchmark points (such as the…

The Illinois project entitled Measurement and Evaluation of Public Library Services is being conducted by the Library Research Center (LRC) at the University of Illinois. The long range goal of the project is to make available meaningful information for the evaluation and improvement of local public libraries. Two immediate objectives are to test…

A project is described that helps states provide more comparable, complete, and timely educational information for the annual Common Core of Data (CCD) to be used for policy-making decisions. The Education Data Improvement Project (EDIP), funded by the National Center for Education Statistics, began in the fall of 1985. In the first phase/year,…

A statutory requirement that Georgia revise its beginning teacher certification process to reflect on-the-job performance rather than work performed in college was enacted in 1973 as part of the Adequate Program for Education in Georgia (APEG). Following a statewide survey, 33 teacher competency statements were accepted for incorporation into five…

This report discusses secondary level psychology instruction in Florida public schools. The typical high school psychology student is described. The composite picture is of a student who is white, most often female, attends a large urban high school, and receives instruction with a behavioral emphasis from a social studies teacher with a Masters…

A long-term project entitled Agricultural Manpower Needs in North Dakota examined current and projected agriculture manpower needs in the state. Objectives of the project were to develop a methodology for obtaining and interpreting agricultural manpower needs data for North Dakota, to determine emerging employment trends and identify emerging…

Educational indicators are statistical input/output measures providing information on the health of the educational system. This report for the consideration of the Council of Chief State School Officers characterizes the current state of educational indicators as in "shambles." It proposes a three phase framework for developing a sensitive and…

The School District Data Book (SDDB) is an information resource from the National Center of Education Statistics that contains social, economic, and administrative data for each of the 15,274 public school districts (local education agencies, or LEAs) in the United States. This paper addresses the information and capabilities of the SDDB that can…

An attempt is made to clarify the language of the Adult Education Act of 1966 to yield operational criteria for identifying its goals within a needs assessment/treatment framework. Criteria for general and special target populations are set forth. Singled out are the group of those with four or less years of formal education and those determined…

Women have comprised a declining percentage of public school administrators since 1928 when 55 percent of all elementary principals were female. A heretofore unchallenged reason for this decline has been the assumption that women lack geographic mobility and that consequently neither they themselves nor potential employers should consider them…

A study to identify curriculum concepts that one faculty group thought basic and relevant to pharmacy practice, and to measure the perceived level of understanding and relevance/importance of these concepts in a sample of Kentucky pharmacists is discussed. (Author/MLW)

Principals rate teachers in their own schools whom they had previously nominated as either effective or ineffective, using the four dimensions of the Tuckman Teacher Feedback Form (TTFF)--creativity, dynamism, organized demeanor, and warmth and acceptance. A sample of 180 teachers was rated, 60 each at the elementary, intermediate, and secondary…