Concerns about academic standards, whether created by states from scratch or adopted by states under the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) banner, have drawn widespread media attention and are at the top of many state policymakers' priority lists. Recently, a number of legislatures have required additional steps, such as waiting periods for…

As district- and school-level leaders face increasing pressure from federal, state, and local accountability mandates there has been increased dependence on using and analyzing student data to help improve student performance. While the reporting of disaggregated data by student subgroup confirms that achievement gaps exist, it does not provide…

By late 2008, the United States was in the midst of its most severe economic recession since the 1930s, brought on by a collapse in real estate prices and exacerbated by the failure of many large banks and financial institutions. Heeding calls from economists, Congress and the Obama administration passed an historic law in early 2009 to stimulate…

Purpose: This preliminary study compared clinical evaluations for guardianship in three states with varying levels of statutory reform. Design and Methods: Case files for 298 cases of adult guardianship were reviewed in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Colorado, three states with varying degrees of statutory reform. The quality and content of the…

The Education Cooperative (TEC) composed of nine contiguous Massachusetts towns (Dedham, Natick, Needham, Norwood, Walpole, Wayland, Wellesley, Weston, and Westwood) is exploring the possible development of a regional transportation system to serve the special education pupils within these communities. This report describes the planning required…

As a response to several specific economic analysis questions asked by the staff of Massachusetts' Management and Information System for Occupational Education (MISOE), this paper focuses on concepts of costs and benefits required for cost-effectiveness analysis, as well as the methodology of cost-effectiveness analysis. Useful as background…

As the first of two papers delineating the design of Massachusetts' Management and Information System for Occupational Education (MISOE), these specific dimensions of MISOE structure and function are considered: (1) the distinction between economic and noneconomic analysis, (2) distinctions among census, sample, and other data, (3) the distinction…

The MIT Libraries enthusiastically implemented real-time online reference service in September 2001. After 15 months, Ask Us!--Live was suspended due to ongoing software problems. This article describes the four-part assessment of the service with recommendations for the future. (Contains 6 figures and 21 notes.)

Guidelines for basic sampling and weighting procedures for Massachusetts' Management and Information System for Occupational Education (MISOE) are discussed, illustrating solutions relevant for systems development. Disproportionate, stratified random sampling within and across MISOE subsystems will be carried out, with a hierarchical…

Massachusetts' Management and Information System for Occupational Education (MISOE) arrays data for its dynamic simulation model, which decides educational and instructional policies at the state, school district, and classroom levels, according to this formula: Inputs/Process/Product/Impact. In this monograph linear programed models are…