Education systems are increasingly creating rich, longitudinal data sets with frequent, and even real-time, data updates of many student measures, including daily attendance, homework submissions, and exam scores. These data sets provide an opportunity for district and school staff members to move beyond an indicators-based approach and instead…

Education reform has been on a new path over the last 15 years; a path that leads to more accountability, more choice for students and parents, highly qualified teachers, as well as, best practices in instruction. In an effort to move along the path of reform and as a result of previous reform, the 2004 reauthorization of IDEA reviewed the field…

Economic pressures on universities and the emergence of new technologies have spurred the creation of new systems for delivering engineering laboratories in education, in particular simulations and remote-access laboratory systems. Advocates of simulation argue that physical labs needlessly consume university space and students' time. However,…

The Delaware Educational Assessment Program accountability model is based on the performance assessment procedure initially described by Dyer, which utilizes background information of students to estimate educational outcomes. The difference between the estimate and the actual outcome is defined as a "need" in this application. This…

Methods by which annual evaluation and review of departments at Michigan State has moved from a limited exercise to a valued administrative tool are described. A model is used that has as its basic unit the academic department and that is an operational system for departmental review and resource allocation in a complex university. (Editor/LBH)

The critical mass approach to academic planning for higher education is addressed. Critical mass denotes the level of course offerings and research that academic units could not reduce and still meet program objectives. The model presented is used to advance nonenrollment, driven resource maintenance and acquisition proposals at institutional and…

Support for public education wavers in a number of states due to a lack of evidence indicating that increased funding is associated with increases in output. Maintaining and increasing this support, however, is critical for rural communities as they seek to strengthen their human capital base as a strategy for economic growth and development. The…

The scores which students get on tests are the result of many factors, only one of which is the school program of instruction. The unique traits of the individual develop as they interact with the environment. Family life style, the way parents and siblings use language, and the presence of reading materials and television in the home all have an…

Explores the difficulty of evaluating school effectiveness, distinguishing between school effectiveness and school efficiency. Introduces seven evaluation models, and discusses the difficulty of integrating these models. Develops a dynamic model which reconceptualizes school effectiveness and combines characteristics of the integrated and…

The purpose of this analysis is to describe the research base that undergirds the emerging concept of learning-centered leadership. We begin with our definition of leadership. Leadership is "the process of influencing others to achieve mutually agreed upon purposes for the organization" (Patterson, 1993, p. 3). Next, we make a number of…

Needs assessment is a young and growing field. Needs assessments contribute to effective educational planning and help educators improve services to students. Needs assessment can be used to identify goals and objectives, but probably has the most utility as a problem-focusing strategy that includes the following sequence: (1) identification of…

To help school boards, educators, and citizens in Connecticut do more comprehensive district planning, this handbook introduces the planning, evaluation, and resource management (PERM) model and describes how it works. Section 1 of the document gives an overview of the planning process, defines comprehensive planning, and answers general questions…

The Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Model for Competency Based Education (CBE) Assessment Programs is designed to assist state and institutional decision-makers in the cost analysis of alternative assessment strategies in CBE programs. The general model indicates stages of decision-making related to the use of various assessment strategies within the…

The charge of the Committee on Strategies for Excellence was to examine the current status of elementary and secondary education in Iowa, and to investigate ways in which school districts could be educationally more productive. The report brings together recommendations from various state and national reports, reviews the literature, and makes…

From 1980 to 1991, the University of Alberta undertook systematic reviews of all its academic and support units mostly for program improvement purposes, but also to acquire information for planning and budget decisions. This report responds to a 1988 request to examine the University's 1980-1988 experience with program reviews and to recommend…