Factors that affect the utility of financial data collected through the Higher Education General Information Surveys (HEGIS) are examined. Attention is also directed to the process associated with the collection and use of that data; roles and responsibilities of various parties to that process, with a focus on researchers' roles; and possible…

This executive summary of a research project explores the general question of how school districts change their domains through the management of major proposals ("issues"). The study, which focused on case studies of three suburban superintendents' management of five to seven major issues, used raw data consisting of interviews with…

As a step in combining three of the Elementary and Secondary Education surveys of the National Center for Education Statistics to produce one database linking local education agencies, schools, and teachers, the merged procedures and collections forms were pretested. Different methods were tested by splitting the pretest sample of 220 public…

A study of Arizona vocational education follow-up systems was designed to survey problems in and promising practices for developing information systems to provide useful data for decision making. Interviews with state, county, college, and school district personnel revealed that the major problem faced by those conducting follow-up studies at both…

This report profiles current West Virginia women business owners and notes significant trends in the last eight years. It highlights a subgroup of women business owners, specifically low income, single women with children. These survey areas are discussed: industry sector, type of ownership, reasons for going/not going into business, planning…

Thoughtful, well-planned and systematic reviews of both instructional and noninstructional programs provide community colleges with a way of determining whether programs are meeting stated objectives and what standards of performance should be maintained. Programs that need improvement or should be eliminated can be identified, and fiscal…

This report of a United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) pilot project, which was carried out during 1982-84 in Khartoum (Sudan) to develop a vehicle for providing access to information on research in progress, describes: (1) the study that led to the conclusion that a national register of research projects was…

Distance education at Riverina-Murray Institute of Higher Education (RMIHE) in Australia is addressed in two papers by David Roberts. The first paper, "Approaches to Learning: An Institutional Study," discusses the results of 1984 questionnaires and diaries completed by RMIHE distance education students. Information was sought on how…

This report describes a large scale research effort to validate and improve the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) aptitude area (AA) composites now used by the Army to select and classify enlisted personnel. Data were collected from existing Army sources on over 60,000 soldiers and over 60 Military Occupational Specialties (MOS).…

Two innovative methods for collecting and analyzing qualitative data are vignettes and pre-structured cases. Vignettes are descriptions of situations or problems written by a professional, with a suggested outline and comments provided by a researcher. Advantages of this method are strength of impact of the written descriptions and efficiency of…

Written for Migrant Student Records Transfer System (MSRTS) specialists, this manual provides information to help them generate, translate, interpret, use, and update a migrant child's educational record. The manual serves as a reference to be used in conjunction with the National MSRTS User's Manual and as initial orientation and subsequent guide…

The checklists, tips, and examples will help persons involved with youth participation projects demonstrate the impact of a project. They will also help check for project strengths and weaknesses. Including the introduction, there are seven chapters. Chapter 2, "How Should Your Evaluation Look?" discusses what questions should be asked,…

Evaluation within human service organizations is defined in terms of accepted evaluation criteria, with reasonable expectations shown and structured into a model of systematic evaluation practice. The evaluation criteria of program effort, performance, adequacy, efficiency and process mechanisms are discussed, along with measurement information…

The program for gifted and talented students in the Austin Independent School District consists of 126 programs in grades K-12 to develop skills and abilities in academic subjects, music, art, problem-solving, and coping with giftedness. The program has been in effect since 1975. The focus of the evaluation in 1981-82 is the identification of…

The techniques and accompanying problems of collecting data on interventions are explored. As a result of the analyses of two previous studies (Colorado and Kentucky Ethnographic Studies, 1979; and Texas, 1981) a hybrid-method of documenting interventions was developed for use in the Principal-Teacher Interaction Study (PTI). This paper traces the…