This paper: (1) provides the conceptual underpinnings of the knowledge about effective school practices that bear directly on the quality of the teacher workforce; and (2) analyzes current policy decisions and their ability to affect positive changes. Working conditions enhancing teacher commitment, retention, and teaching effectiveness are…

This essay focuses on a key change that the author has experienced in the practice of program evaluation research over the past 20 years: the accommodation of the logic of science and the psychology of politics. This change has substantially altered the role of the evaluator, the evaluator's relationship with clients, the design of an evaluation…

Designed to assist individuals who need to bring information to citizen groups or decision makers concerned with community economic development, this manual uses a question-answer format to cover topics that might occur to someone just starting to build an understanding of community economic analysis. Among topics covered are: strategies for…

The Federal Government will spend an estimated $1.5 billion in fiscal year 1986 for the production and publication of statistical data. This estimate represents the expected obligations for statistical activities of over 70 agencies or departmental units reporting outlays of at least $500,000 for such activities in their budgets for any of fiscal…

This document suggests that the activity described can be used from kindergarten through adulthood. The activity involves measuring, counting, categorizing, group processes, construction of computer data base files, construction and/or use of data tables, data gathering, making observations, the study of shape, the computation of area, the…

This report summarizes and documents the major technical aspects of the High School and Beyond (HS&B) third follow-up survey conducted during the spring and summer of 1986. Young persons who, either as sophomores or as seniors, had participated in the base year survey in 1980 were contracted for the fourth time in 1984 and asked to complete…

Techniques for conducting student-attrition studies using the Student-Outcomes Information Service (SOIS) are outlined. General concepts to effectively guide an institutional research effort are discussed, with attention to better defining student attrition and a summary of results of recent research on the reasons why students withdraw from…

This project was designed to: (1) examine the use of the computer as a tool for simulation; (2) let students gather data, analyze hypotheses, and explore algorithms; and (3) explore the potential of high resolution graphics and large memory that will characterize the microcomputers of the 1980s. Prototypes for three different computer-based…

After a brief introduction indicating the value of the first Follow Through evaluation, this document offers ideas about how a new wave of Follow Through approaches should be evaluated. The discussion is based on the premise that the form of an evaluation must be derived from the questions for which answers are sought, the audience(s) to whom the…

Articles in this issue of the bulletin of the Hispanic Research Center focus on the problems of collecting demographic and social data in the South Bronx. The introductory article summarizes the contents of this issue. The second (by Lloyd H. Rogler, Osvaldo Barreras, and Rosemary Santana Cooney) is based on the experiences of field workers…

Provided is the appendix material from a study which examined and evaluated in detail all the existing sources of economic data on the arts and conducted a needs survey of arts councils, arts-producing organizations, and people concerned with the arts to find out which economic data sources, if any, they found useful. The study was conducted to…

This paper summarizes the first 18 months of Maryland's School Improvement through Instructional Process (SITIP) program, begun in fall 1980. Four general methods of data collection were used for the project: observation, interviews, questionnaires, and document analysis. Of Maryland's 24 local education agencies (LEAs)--Baltimore City plus 23…

Prepared to help small towns assess community population and economic trends, this publication provides a step-by-step guide for establishing an on-going local data collection system, which is based on four local indicators and will provide accurate, up-to-date estimates of population, family income, and gross sales within a town's trade area. The…

The purpose of this study was to assess differences in demographic variables, mean attitude score, reliability of response, variability of response, and level of item completion among respondents to an initial survey mailing, to the first follow-up, to the second follow-up, and to a telephone interview. The first mailing included a cover letter,…

Procedures are described that were used to collect and process postsecondary school transcripts for a subsample of members of the younger (i.e. 1980 sophomore) cohort of the High School and Beyond study who attended postsecondary institutions at any time after leaving high school. Five chapters are as follows: (1) introduction (the National Center…