This paper discusses those generic features of school districts as complex organizations which inhibit district coordination of testing, evaluation and instruction. It is based on a selective literature review and four theoretical papers covering (1) school district decision making, (2) the institutional structure of school districts, (3) role…

An investigation of how some school districts construct and maintain needed links between evaluation/testing and curricular/instructional activities is presented. Researchers must build on the twin strands of research about school and school district organization and developments in testing, evaluation methodology. School district characteristics…

A three-year research project aims to describe and analyze how school district management of educational testing and evaluation can better link these activities to instructional improvement, according to this first annual report. After chronicling the first year's activities, the authors discuss their use of case studies, interviews, and…

Activities in three of eight school districts that linked testing and evaluation data with instructional decision-making matched the seven components of management information systems. Each district had a unique system that focused, respectively, on student achievement, school improvement, and staff capacity building. (MLF)

This report on the Management of Instructional Information Systems Project describes its activities in developing and disseminating research on educational information systems to school personnel. Section 1 presents the methodology of an ongoing review of the management information systems literature for information relevant to educational…

This guidebook shows how school district personnel from many areas--curriculum, instruction, supervision, staff development--can coordinate their activities to focus on instructional improvement. It reveals how data derived from tests, when properly used, can be useful in helping district personnel work with school and community people to assess…

The most important interaction in a school system, teacher classroom behavior and its effects on pupils' learning, is largely unattended to in any direct supervisory manner in most school districts. School administrators have allowed administrative matters to divert them from their central task, which should be the school's curriculum and…

The Center for the Study of Evaluation Systems Project focuses on assessing the costs and impacts of managing testing, evaluation, and instructional (T/E/I) systems through a collection of nine papers: (1) "School District Evaluation Offices: Are They Worth the Money?," by Richard C. Williams and Pam McGranahan; (2) "How Two…