This paper compares the usefulness of documentary (written materials) versus face to face delivery of information in helping to bring about urban school improvement. The paper is based on the experiences of the Documentation and Technical Assistance Project (DTA) of the Center for New Schools (Chicago, Illinois), a program that aims to increase…

This paper describes the implementation of technical assistance strategies to enhance urban public school improvement in the Oakland, California, and Chicago, Illinois, school districts. The assistance strategies were developed under the Documentation and Technical Assistance Project (DTA) of the Center for New Schools in Chicago, and implemented…

University of Michigan students from 32 different countries were surveyed regarding their perceptions of health and illness; information seeking and health service utilization behavior; satisfaction with University Health Service; and perception of stress and its effects on health. Results were examined for foreign students in the aggregate as…

Any state-level postsecondary education agency could perform its job more effectively through discriminate use of the available technology of informational and analytic planning approaches. The paper attempts to increase an awareness of how data, analytic techniques, and their product information should be used to assist state-level academic…

The studies described in this paper were undertaken to evaluate the usefulness of information-exchange techniques for promoting the quality of life within given regions of a society. The first analysis describes the investigation of projects to enhance the functions of small businesses, joint regional planning, health care, education,…

Evaluation research should be viewed as the source of knowledge on two levels: (1) how evaluation studies utilize results, and (2) how the knowledge that was evaluated is utilized. The purpose of this document is to systematically examine the literature pertinent to the utilization of evaluation results. The impetus for legitimization of…

Professors were interviewed to ascertain the evaluative information they collected about their professional activities. Student ratings were used by most faculty to evaluate their teaching. Almost all received peer reviews of research productivity. Qualitative evaluative information was seen as more credible than objective ratings when used for…

The keynote article in this issue summarizes some of the lessons learned after a decade of using satellites for public service, and after five years of experimentation with information technologies designed for specialized audiences. Community service programs in the Appalachian Mountain and Rocky Mountain regions and in the state of Alaska are…

Although juvenile court records are often good predictors of the criminal tendencies of young adults, only sporadic information sharing between police, adult and juvenile courts occurs. A national survey of prosecutors showed that information sharing depends largely on local policy. Nearly half the prosecutors reported receiving little or no…

Patterned after a 1976 study, a study examined voters' decision making during the 1980 campaign for the presidency of the United States. Data from a survey of 183 registered voters indicated that partisan voters were likely to be precommitted to a candidate choice and thus relatively immune to mass mediated campaign effects. However, those voters…

To determine consumer preference regarding four forms of mass communication, an 18-item questionnaire was devised that asked individuals where they sought information on national and world affairs, local events, entertainment, and shopping (advertising). Results from the 108 respondents in the random sample indicated the following: newspapers…

Audience research activities were carried out to continue the development of the capacity of Pennsylvania Public Television Network (PPTN) station personnel to understand the use of audience rating information for programming and promotion decisions. The project consisted of (1) continuing the PPTN contract with Arbitron to secure access to their…

The examination of credibility effects in predicting achievement, an important step in the study of source credibility effects on attributions, substantiates Birnbaum's findings that variation in the credibility of information can be represented by changes in the weight of the information. Undergraduate subjects (N=65) predicted the performance of…

This review surveys the literature emanating from less developed countries (LDCs) and international agencies that deals with their perception of the needs of LDCs for scientific and technical information (STI) in relation to social and economic development. It explores five major areas: (1) recognition of STI as it is expressed through…