The explicit goal of most educational information or resource centers, is to assist clients in obtaining and utilizing information to improve educational practice and aid in educational decision making. As the number of services has increased, the need to systematically assess them has become critical. Previous efforts have been limited and…

This brief, semi-technical handbook describes the various data systems of the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) with summaries of background, purpose and scope, sample design, data collection procedures, questionnaire content, data release, and data uses for individual NCHS surveys. NCHS operates a diverse survey and inventory program…

A growing international controversy exists between the West on one hand and the Third World, Marxist states, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on the other focusing on the concepts of "free flow of information" and "Western communication imperialism," and on ethical issues relating to these…

The short-term effect of feedback of student ratings of college teachers was investigated, but no significant differences were found. Ratings of 84 teachers, in three experimental groups and a control group, were obtained in the third week of the fall semester and again during the final week of the same semester. Feedback in the form of a computer…

The 1975 Community/Junior College Conference sought to define and describe evaluation, discuss measuring devices, and underscore the ethical reasons for fair evaluation. William P. Gorth began by discussing the purpose of evaluation--to provide data to a specified decision-maker for decision-making--and the implications which could be drawn from…

In a 1979 survey, the majority of the 73% responding superintendents and 38% responding school board chairmen in 269 randomly chosen small school districts across the nation indicated that program evaluation activity occurred in their districts and that evaluation information was generally desired by and available to the school board.…

Volume I of this 4-volume report contains the research instruments used in an 18-month project which was designed to understand the rural poor in terms of their information-seeking and information-utilization behavior patterns. Randomly divided into 3 groups, 840 families from 7 target counties in northwestern Florida were studied by a group of…

The primary purpose of the documentation operations suggested by the National Teacher Centers Program is to aid individual projects in gaining a more profound and analytical understanding of what is happening within their own centers. The mechanism for this is the development of a massive information storage system, based on data collected from…

Three studies are described which explore use of "new social studies" materials as of 1974. The term "new social studies" is given to materials and teaching approaches developed during the 1960s by projects which were largely funded by the United States Office of Education and the National Science Foundation. The three main…

Despite a decade of debate, standardized achievement testing continues as one of the most controversial issues in education. This study sought the views of teachers, counselors, and principals, regarding the advantages and limitations of achievement testing programs. Responses to a questionnaire and informal discussions indicated positive…

Evaluations by school district research and evaluation units have minimal impact, because they do not meet the realities of school district decision making. School districts are loosely coupled systems that do not respond to centralized planning or evaluations, particularly if findings are unfavorable. To maximize utilization of their findings,…

The achievement of more adequate vocational guidance services in the nation's schools through the improvement of state supervisory service, was the major objective of the seminar. In additon to 72 state guidance supervisory staff members from 47 states, seminar participants and leadership personnel included 14 counselor educators, 12 state-level…

The purpose of this study was to discover whether job seekers can be expected to act on the basis of new knowledge about the local labor market, and if they do act, whether their probability of success in finding a job is increased. This supplementary labor market information experiment was conducted in a single employment service office and…

The Florida Statewide Assessment Program annually tests students on their achievement of statewide objectives in the basic skills areas of mathematics, reading, and writing. The objective-referenced tests, which measure entry-level skills, are administered in the fall of each year. Results are provided for each student, school, district, and the…

A number of problems faced by the custodians of large collections of data which are potentially useful for research in the behavioral sciences, are addressed in this presentation. These problems relate to the rights of individuals who provide research data, to questions of "informed consent", and to the circumstances under which the…