Thanks to extraordinary and exponential improvements in data storage and computing capacities, it is now possible to collect, manage, and analyze data in magnitudes and in manners that would have been inconceivable just a short time ago. As the world has developed this remarkable capacity to store and analyze data, so have the world's governments…

This study examines the perceptions of data-driven decision making (DDDM) activities and culture in organizations driven by a social mission. Analysis of survey information from multiple stakeholders in each of eight social enterprises highlights the wide divergence in views of DDDM. Within an organization, managerial and nonmanagerial staff…

Better information about how investments in education are influencing outcomes for students, schools, and districts is needed. The growing hunger for using financial data to answer more and evolving questions will require changes in systems, policy, practice, and culture. The problem at hand is that both people and systems have limited capacity to…

Most universities use Information Systems (IS) to perform their daily administrative activities (student enrollment, data files, accountancy, etc.), and an integrated Learning Management System (LMS) to support teaching and learning. However, although a lot of effort has been put into deploying these computerized systems, the data that they…

Districts expend a considerable amount of time, effort, and resources providing student performance data to teachers to inform instruction, and examining those data for organizational decision-making. Yet rarely, if ever, are these outcome data connected to what goes on in classrooms. In this experimental study, the author reports on the…

Faced with the need to create a competitive workforce and improve the quality of our education system, states are pursuing policy agendas to better prepare students for postsecondary education and careers. To inform these agendas, statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDSs) have become an invaluable asset and serve as a tool to help states answer…

This article looks at a school management tool that allows school managers and education district offices to review the performance of their schools and use the broad-based data to undertake orchestrated planning with districts planning delivery based on the needs of schools and in support of school improvement plans. The review process also…

In recent years, interest has spiked in data-driven decision making in education--that is, using various types of student data to inform decisions in schools and classrooms. In October 2008, the Council of the Great City Schools and American Institutes for Research (AIR) launched a project funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that focused…

Data and information needs of college administrators are discussed, along with the uses of information to support decisionmaking. Difficulties in applying information technology to the administration of higher education are briefly reviewed. Data and information are discussed both in definitional and functional terms. Data are defined as either…

University information systems are designed to make decisions easier and to provide good information for administrative tasks. Data do not by themselves produce better decisions, and more data can make agreement on issues more complicated. When collegial decisions are made, the precise impact of data and models is uncertain. When there is no…

This paper describes an investigation of the effects of group interaction and consensus on information processing behavior when information is received sequentially or simultaneously by the information processing unit. Responses were compared to the Bayesian norm and further analyzed to determine the extent to which groups differed from…

Integrating information from local school district and community data sources is essential to understanding the relationships between them. A major problem in merging such data concerns the geographic incongruities of the boundaries of school districts (local education agencies) and the boundaries of communities. This paper focuses on resolution…

A number of problems faced by the custodians of large collections of data which are potentially useful for research in the behavioral sciences, are addressed in this presentation. These problems relate to the rights of individuals who provide research data, to questions of "informed consent", and to the circumstances under which the…

The concepts of need and needs assessment are examined in the context of information needs for college administrators. A description is included of the conceptual framework underlying the Needs Assessment Information System (NAIS), which was developed by the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems. Attention is directed to: (1)…

A systematic approach to planning and presenting the data collection activities of a State Department of Education is described. The Information Communication System, a model communication system used by the state of New Jersey, conveys narrative and statistical information relating to a school district's students, teachers, finances, facilities…