Improving the quality of healthcare while simultaneously reducing its overall costs remains a challenge. One of the recommended approaches for achieving this goal is to build high quality data collection and reporting systems to facilitate evidence-based practice (EBP), which emphasizes the importance of using the solid evidence available to make…

Policymakers are moving to outcomes-based funding in an effort to inspire public higher education institutions to drive the transformative change required to expand access, increase graduation rates and contain costs. For outcomes-based funding to have a significant effect on student outcomes, system and institutional leaders must successfully…

Digitalisation, globalisation, demographic shifts and other changes in work organisation are constantly reshaping skill needs. This can lead to persistent skill shortages and mismatch which are costly for individuals, firms and society in terms of lost wages and lower productivity and growth. These costs can be reduced through better assessment…

This document presents the technical appendices that accompany the full report, "Determining College Readiness in California's Community Colleges: A Survey of Assessment and Placement Policies." The appendices include: (1) Survey Design and Administration; and (2) Survey Instrument. [This report was written with research support from…

The Association for Institutional Research (AIR) is engaged in a variety of efforts to document the current state of institutional research. In 2012, the Association initiated a critically important effort to identify the tasks involved in the work of institutional research (IR) across all titles and variations represented in its membership. This…

The phrase "data-driven" has been used with increasing frequency in the college access and success field in recent years. However, as with many frequently used phrases, its importance can get lost or written off as a buzzword. Being data-driven revolves around decisions being shaped by information and evidence rather than hunches, gut…

Survey research in education is a popular quantitative research design and is used to determine opinions, attitudes, behavior, habits, and perceptions on a wide variety of topics. While many people are familiar with survey methods, it is often used in a 'quick and dirty' way to get information. This case aims to describe some of the challenges of…

In winter 2014, I came upon an opportunity to conduct a case study on a team of middle school math teachers who initiated a study group to examine how a set of learning progressions could help them with their planning, instruction, and assessment. Learning progressions are research-based hypotheses about how students develop more sophisticated…

Teacher shortages that most severely affect schools serving the least advantaged children have been part of the California education landscape for the last half decade. This brief describes how key teacher supply and demand factors vary across the state, and it provides potential policy solutions to mitigate ongoing shortages. The brief also…

When California students returned to school in fall 2019, hundreds of thousands returned to classrooms staffed by substitutes and teachers who were not fully prepared to teach. In recent years, California has experienced widespread shortages of elementary and secondary teachers as districts and schools seek to restore class sizes and course…

In this project, students use a real-world, complex database and experience firsthand the consequences of inadequate data modeling. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency created the database as part of a multimillion dollar data collection effort undertaken in order to set limits on air pollutants from electric power plants. First, students…

Trust in science and scientists can greatly influence consideration of scientific developments and activities. Yet, trust is a nebulous construct based on emotions, knowledge, beliefs, and relationships. As we explored the literature regarding trust in science and scientists we discovered that no instruments were available to assess the construct,…

Knowledge of how to effectively monitor social media is an increasingly valued marketing research skill. This study tests an approach for adding social media content to an undergraduate marketing research class team project. The revised project maintains the expected objectives and parameters of a traditional research project, while integrating…

This documentation is for the provisional version 1a file of the National Center for Education Statistics' (NCES) Common Core of Data (CCD) Local Education Agency (LEA) Universe Survey for SY 2011-12. It contains a brief description of the data collection, along with information required to understand and access the data file. The CCD is a…

High quality school leadership has always mattered. It matters even more as States begin to implement new evaluation systems, standards and assessments. To ensure that every school leader comes prepared to improve schools and lead these reforms, States must cultivate strong principal preparation programs. This report outlines steps States can take…