Regional Educational Laboratory Appalachia researchers developed the Cost-Feasibility Analysis (CFA) Toolkit to help education leaders estimate whether implementing supplemental online programs is affordable given a school or district's available resources. The CFA Toolkit guides users through a four-stage process that yields cost information that…

The Early Warning System (EWS) Tool v2.0 is a Microsoft Excel-based tool developed by the National High School Center at the American Institutes for Research in collaboration with Matrix Knowledge Group. The tool enables schools, districts, and states to identify students who may be at risk of dropping out of high school and to monitor these…

This is a must-have resource for all K-12 teachers and administrators who want to really make the best use of available technologies. Written by Doug Johnson, an expert in educational technology, "The Classroom Teacher's Technology Survival Guide" is replete with practical tips teachers can easily use to engage their students and make their…

Regardless of where you are in your school improvement process, here's a book that helps you make sure you have all the right elements working for you in the right way. The authors take you through the core processes that are essential for all school improvement efforts--from establishing your mission to differentiating your supervision based on…

A mechanism for using personal computer spreadsheet software to generate unique laboratory and problem assignments in optics for each student and provide corresponding solutions that can be checked quickly is described. The method minimizes some students' tendency to inspect others' solutions without solving problems themselves. Another…

Discusses "REFLEX," a software package for scheduling. Explores the program's applications in preparing a departmental class schedule. Explains that "REFLEX" includes a filter function and some attributes of a spreadsheet but lacks the ability to interact with other databases. Concludes that the program can make scheduling…

Using personal computer spreadsheet software, standard corporate financial analysis can help university research administrators communicate the value of research and development to sponsors and other stakeholders; balance projects, technologies, or categories of research; and continually assess the value of investing in ongoing projects. It also…

Describes some of the available software and hardware tools that can be used to develop a decision support system implemented on microcomputers. Activities that should be supported by software are discussed, including data entry, data coding, finding and combining data, and data compatibility. Hardware considerations include speed, storage…

One of the most critical needs in Florida's "Reading First" schools is to improve the effectiveness of interventions for struggling readers. For example, during the 2005-2006 school year, only 17% of first grade students who began the year at some level of risk for reading difficulties finished the year with grade level skills on the…

In most school districts, the chief business official is involved in some aspect of a variety of support functions. This book provides 101 ready-made, field-tested computerized templates of applications commonly used in school business administration. The 101 school business applications and corresponding templates are described in the text and…

Discussed are the use of spreadsheets for demonstrating and exploring with the whole class, basic and advanced spreadsheet operations, geometric progressions, and graphing. Teacher responses to these methods are described. (CW)

To inform faculty and staff about the new state retirement plan and help them compare its benefits with those of the only existing employer-sponsored retirement plan for educators, a defined-benefit plan, Georgia Institute of Technology used an electronic spreadsheet and a series of seminars for analyzing and illustrating investment options. (MSE)

This theme issue describes ways in which educational administrators are successfully automating many of their administrative tasks. Articles focus on student management; office automation, including word processing, databases, and spreadsheets; human resources; support services, including supplies, textbooks, and learning resources; financial…