State longitudinal data systems (SLDSs) promise a rich source of data for education research. SLDSs contain statewide student data that can be linked over time and to additional data sources for education management, reporting, improvement, and research, and ultimately for informing education policy and practice. Authored by Karen Levesque, Robert…

Minnesota Reading Corps (MRC) is the largest AmeriCorps State program in the country. The goal of MRC is to ensure that students become successful readers and meet reading proficiency targets by the end of the third grade. Starting in 2011, the "Corporation for National and Community Service" (CNCS) sponsored a randomized controlled…

This document presents the technical appendices accompanying the report, "Funding California Schools: The Revenue Limit System." Included are: (1) Revenue Limit Calculation and Decomposition; (2) Data and Methods; and (3) Base Funding Alternative Simulation Results. (Contains 5 tables and 26 footnotes.) [For the main report,…

This paper presents information on re-developing an outcome evaluation for a state-funded program providing service coordination utilizing wraparound to youth with severe emotional disturbance (SED) and their families. Originally funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Kentucky IMPACT program has existed statewide since 1990. Changing…

The primary study objective was to develop a statewide system that made use of information about the pre-kindergarten program in combination with kindergarten reading and social outcome measures in order to inform parents about the ability of early childhood programs to prepare children for formal schooling. In order to carry out this objective,…

Provides details on the instrument development, sample design, data collection, and data analysis procedures for the 1998 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) national and state assessments. Includes information necessary to show adherence to testing standards of professional organizations. (SLD)

The Common Core of Data (CCD) is the primary database of the National Center for Education Statistics on elementary and secondary education in the United States. CCD is a comprehensive, annual, national statistical database of all elementary and secondary schools and school districts. It contains data that are comparable across all states, and all…

This technical report describes the development of "Finetuning Special Education Finance: A Guide for State Policymakers." The report's introductory section notes the need for information on special education finance. Section 2 describes how these needs were identified--through a national survey of 118 persons knowledgeable about state…

The handbook is designed to help state education agency (SEA), personnel make an accurate count of those handicapped children aged 3 to 21 years who are receiving special education and related services in their state. The child count procedures suggested are based on a study of accepted census practices and on the experiences of a number of SEAs…

The State Criminal Justice Telecommunications (STACOM) project has developed techniques for the identification and analysis of user requirements and designs for networks for the dissemination of criminal justice information on a state-wide basis. Techniques developed for user requirements analysis include methods for determining data required,…

This report contributes to the comprehensive evaluation of the Common Core of Data (CCD) program by providing an analysis of CCD definitions in order to identify potential classification problems. At the time of the evaluation, the CCD program consisted of four surveys. The focus of this evaluation is on the "Public Elementary/Secondary…

Preliminary findings of this research effort provide support for the hypothesis that existing databases maintained by federal agencies for administrative or monitoring purposes can serve as useful data sources in special education policy research. The research explored the relationships among a number of state-level special education, fiscal, and…

This project studied the feasibility of using microcomputers for gathering and transmitting farm record information to the analysis portion of the Farm Business Management Analysis (FBMA) program in Missouri. Considerations were given to improving the accuracy of data submitted, the turnaround time to complete the analysis, and other factors…

Requirements analysis and design for the Texas Criminal Justice Telecommunications Network are provided in this report on the application in the state of Texas of techniques developed by the STACOM project. These techniques focus on identification of user requirements and network designs for criminal justice information on a state-wide basis.…

A historical antagonism between the advocates of quantitative evaluation methods and the proponents of qualitative evaluation methods has stymied the recognition of the value to be gained by utilizing both methodologies in the same study. The integration of quantitative and qualitative methods within a single evaluation has synergistic effects in…