Cyber threats have escalated in recent years. Many of these threats have been direct and vicious attacks on K-12 systems. Educators are rarely trained on how to address cyber threats from a systemic and educational perspective when such challenges arise in their school buildings. This article explains the cyber threats that are looming large for…

Information technology has spawned new evidentiary sources, better retrieval systems for existing ones, and new tools for interpreting traditional source materials. These advances have contributed to a broadening of public participation in civil society (Blouin and Rosenberg 2006). In these culturally unsettled and economically fragile times…

The task of managing an information technology (IT) system in a school environment poses unique challenges. For example, one of the greatest challenges facing individual schools is the lack of integration among various information systems. The present situation in many schools is that there are many disconnected systems managing many different…

Competency education is student-centric, personalizing student progress so that every child has adequate time and support to reach proficiency every step of the way. Competency education fundamentally changes the way the educational enterprise is organized around student needs, and thus must have a dynamic IT system to support it. Following an…

Understanding the potential or need for ICT support in education within developing countries, requires an in-depth needs assessment to comprehend, elaborate and set the desired priorities of rural schools. A Needs Assessment was conducted as part of an on-going comprehensive evaluation process of an ICT for development project, the Siyakhula…

Data integration is one of the single most challenging tasks any district can face. Fortunately for school districts throughout the country with data scattered in disparate systems, an open specification known as the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF) is mitigating that challenge. SIF has emerged as a cornerstone of K-12 data warehousing,…

In 1993, The Pennsylvania State Board of Education approved 15 performance-based education goals that contain 53 student learning outcomes. Boards of education and superintendents must create and implement strategic plans that specify how school districts and area vocational-technical schools will help students reach the intended outcomes. This…

The CO/OP (founded in 1973 as the Massachusetts Association of School Business Officials Cooperative Corporation) has created and produced administrative software for schools. Describes two areas in which software can increase revenue and provide protection for personnel: (1) invoice/accounts receivable for the rental of school space; and (2) an…

Six papers on educational management systems and indicators development are presented in this document. Research was conducted under the Improving the Efficiency of Educational Systems (IEES) Project, which provided assistance in several countries, some of which include Indonesia, Botswana, Haiti, Guinea, and Nepal. The papers include:…

This document provides information on the use of information technology (IT) to assist in educational management and administration, considers where future developments may lead, and provides definitions of IT and its elements--information handling, communications technology, and information transformation. The involvement of the Council for…

Outlines a systematic approach for evaluating the needs and potential problems involved when school districts seek to update their current information systems. Considers the following components: financial, technical, computer literacy, and information system management infrastructure. (MLF)

To address the challenges to education posed by the new information technologies, participants from 41 states--publishers, administrators, teachers, subject specialists, and leaders from the field of educational computing--gathered to share ideas and visions. This report of the conference proceedings includes introductory comments by John Roach of…

Many developing countries are now making substantial gains in developing databases on their education system. This book focuses on strengthening the link between improvements in information with better practice at the school level. It provides a synthesis of lessons learned from recent experience and research in collecting, analyzing, and using…

Educators can learn from business people accounting models that can be applied to managerial accounting, integrated information systems, focused/activity-based costing, decentralized information, and mission-driven costing. A sidebar discusses measuring technology's impact. (MLF)

This paper describes promising practices in developing model student information systems, with a focus on information management and administrative record keeping. Three school districts with exemplary information systems are profiled, using data derived from document analysis, on-site observation, and interviews with district and site-level…