For better or worse, many educational decisions that were once handled on a personal level by teachers or administrators now increasingly rely upon data and information. To be successful in this era, educators need to understand this broad sociotechnical revolution and how it is realigning traditional roles and responsibilities. In this book, the…

The traditional concern with relevance or nonrelevance of unexamined documents is misplaced, and traditional measures of effectiveness should be replaced by estimates of direct utility of examined documents. (Author)

Offers a framework for explicitly defining the types of information that clinicians use and the various states of information need on which different studies have focused. Highlights include methodological issues in information needs research, clinical questions, and evaluating information systems and the impact on information needs. (Author/LRW)

This summary of a recent evaluation of the Minnesota Management Information System (MIS) focuses on problems encountered during its evolution and on options available to solve those problems. A delineation between state and district information needs is provided, with an emphasis on statewide standards for reporting educational needs. (MER)

This is one of a series of reports based on an ongoing reality test of systemic evaluation for instructional decision making. This feasibility study is being carried out by the Center for the Study of Evaluation with the Laboratory in School and Community Relations at a suburban Los Angeles high school (called Site A). Viewing a school as a…

An information system can be viewed as a symbiotic relation between the users of the system and the system's hardware, software, and data resources. Ideally, performance evaluation of these systems should be based on the achievement of user based criteria while concurrently minimizing resource costs. Current evaluation technologies concentrate on…

The complexity of the design problem for modern computer based information systems has increased significantly over its predecessors. The problem presented to the designer is to configure a system which satisfies the user criterion while achieving system resource related performance criteria. The purpose of this paper is to present an evaluation…

This document presents the research proposal and supporting documents for a study to evaluate the process of developing a comprehensive dissemination capacity in State Education Agencies (SEAs) and to assess the impact of the capacity building activities in the states, addressing two questions: Is dissemination capacity being built and, if so,…

The components of existing district instructional information systems are identified and illustrated by examples from field studies and descriptions of work with two districts in defining their instructional information systems and assigning costs. Instructional information systems are loosely organized methods of providing past and present…

Involving producing, analyzing, and using information, evaluation is the central discipline of the information age. Both traditional criteria for good evaluation and standards formulated in 1981 prescribe evaluations that are useful, practical, ethical, and accurate. The burning question in evaluation is the utilization of information for…

One of a series of manuals developed by the Home and Community-Based Career Education Project, the publication presents the activities of the project's research and evaluation component, which continually informs the staff about project development and describes client characteristics, needs, decisions, and plans. Generic issues which must be…

This report describes the development of a World Wide Web site designed for business school faculty. During the project, the project team formulated and followed a user-based design process, which places the user centrally in all stages of the process: information-gathering, development, test and evaluation, and implementation. The technical…

Purpose: We report the results of a survey of state initiatives that measure resident satisfaction in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, and we describe several model programs for legislators and public administrators contemplating the initiation of their own state programs. Design and Methods: Data on state initiatives and programs…

The Performance Indicators in Education program is intended to provide measures of the impact school districts have on the achievement of their pupils. After an extensive period of development by the Bureau of School Programs Evaluation of the New York State Education Department, reports were prepared for 628 school districts in New York State.…