This "Research Roundup" focuses on how schools can benefit when educational leaders use data to challenge their intuition and assumptions in their decision-making. In "Building an Automated Student Record System: A Step-by-Step Guide for Local and State Education Agencies," Barbara S. Clements provides administrators with a quick but comprehensive…

This report focuses on students who are underrepresented in the high academic achievement pool by calling attention to the important role that relational data management systems can play in educational decision making, particularly with regard to how they can be applied to closing the academic achievement gap. After explaining the need for data…

The seven chapters of this special issue explore problems in how to better understand the reasoning process that is used to establish evaluative conclusions. The many unanswered questions about reasoning should stimulate further investigation of the meaning of sound evaluative reasoning. (SLD)

Principles that institutional researchers should follow are discussed. The most important dictate is to present decision-makers the bare minimum of information necessary for the task; the material should be simple, short, and succinct. A report to assist decision-makers should not include extensive supporting documentation. The first step is to…

This issue focuses on decision making. The term "D[cubed]M" used throughout the issue means data-driven decision making. D[cubed]M is not merely crunching numbers or translating statistics; it is about creating a picture to see where you have been and to determine where you want to go. Provided is a special D[cubed]M checklist to figure out how…

The history and features of Decision Support Systems (DSS) and use of the approach by academic administrators are discussed. The objective of DSS is to involve the manager/decision maker in the decision-analysis process while simultaneously relieving that person of the burden of developing and performing detailed analysis. DSS represents a…

This quarterly abstracting journal disseminates bibliographic information on Caribbean planning and development literature available through the Caribbean Information System for Economic and Social Planning (CARISPLAN), a cooperative effort of the Caribbean countries. It provides annotated listings of serial publications, books, and other…

This issue includes the following nine papers on the theme of collecting and utilizing information on vocational training in Europe: "Information on Vocational Training in the Federal Republic of Germany" (Hardenacke); "Devolved Decision Making in the U.K. Demands Wide Dissemination of Information" (Cowan, Brown);…

This report examines issues concerning the participation of students with disabilities in state and district assessments and offers principles and recommendations for increasing their participation. This report suggests that 85 percent of students with disabilities could participate either in the regular assessments or by using accommodations and…

This issue presents two articles on the use of data to improve results for students with disabilities. The first paper examines how researchers supported by the Office of Special Education Programs are discovering innovative uses of scientifically derived information in instructional and administrative decision making as well as strategies for…

Designed as an accompaniment to college level macroeconomic lectures (see SO 011 937), this package contains materials for three approaches to the macroeconomics course. The course covers topics of basic macroeconomic concepts, income and expenditure determination, aggregate demand, unemployment and inflation, policy making, investment and…