When gathering and presenting educational statistics, five principles should be considered. (1) The data must be accurate, valid, and complete. Limitations, weaknesses, margins of error, and levels of confidence should be clearly stated. (2) The data must include comparable information, sought in comparable ways, in comparable forms, from…

A model is presented for studying how schools provide instruction to students. A major function of the National Center for Education Statistics is to collect data for understanding and improving how schools provide instruction. The model describes school factors (characteristics, staffing, organization, policy, and student evaluation); classroom…

This paper analyzes data needs for policy purposes and is divided into three sections: (1) revenue and expenditure data; (2) human resources data; and (3) time and curriculum resources data. Federal data collection concerned with resources should identify the state as the unit of analysis, should broaden the definition of resources beyond revenues…

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) invited researchers, practitioners, and users to provide recommendations that would assist NCES in the redesign of its elementary and secondary education data program. This is a draft of the first of two volumes synthesizing the papers received by July 31, 1985. In Part I, Emerson J. Elliot,…

This paper proposes a fundamentally new national data system for elementary and secondary education, differing in structure and content from present education data-collection activities of the federal government, the states, and local education agencies. This report was contracted by the U.S. Department of Education's Center for Statistics as a…

To examine alternatives to nursing home care, states have been testing home and community-based services under the Medicaid program. Information on the operations of the state projects will be vital to designing cost-effective alternative services in the future. The General Accounting Office (GAO) reviewed state reports to see if accurate,…

This report, based on the results of the fifth biennial survey of humanities doctorate recipients, describes the demographic and employment characteristics of humanities Ph.D.s who received their degrees between January 1942 and June 1984 and were residing in the United States in February 1985. The number of humanities Ph.D.s in 1985 was estimated…

This document contains testimonies and prepared statements from the Congressional hearing called to examine the difficulties associated with the lack of reliable demographic data for use in planning appropriate assistance to "special populations" of older Americans, including minorities, persons with disabilities, the rural elderly,…

In 1985-1986, the mission of Connecticut's Committee on Four-Year-Olds, Their Families, and the Public Schools was to develop strategies to alleviate structural and systematic problems that could diminish the success of expanded early intervention efforts in the state. This report of the yearlong effort begins with a review of the committee's work…

This report describes and justifies a data-collection system for assessing teacher supply and demand in United States elementary and secondary schools. The resulting data-collection effort consists of linked surveys of school districts, schools, principals, and teachers designed to support analyses of teacher supply and demand using dimensions…

Needs assessment, a procedure for obtaining and analyzing information for use in decision-making, consists of identifying the concerns of faculty, staff, parents, students, and community, and validating these concerns (which only then become "needs") by means of information derived from surveys and school records. The Worldwide Needs…

This report presents consultants' recommendations for the statewide collection and entry in the OCLC database of bibliographic data on New York state newspapers as part of a national United States newspaper cataloging project. The consulting team was asked to focus principally on two activities: first, the newspaper collection of the New York…

Designed for use during compulsory schooling, the school career and health record described the child's knowledge, aptitudes, and general health at a given time. It was recommended that Council of Europe member states ask their school authorities to use the record for children attending school abroad for a trial period (ending July 31, 1982) and…

The purpose of this paper is to discuss ways in which developmental psychology suffers from the lack of an appropriate technology of measurement and statistical analysis. The paper begins by noting that developmental psychology is the study of change; that individuals develop through a succession of "stages" which are separated by…

This project report describes the development and implementation of a model of qualitative measures for evaluating the use of school library resources by students and teachers. It explains a record-keeping system for school librarians to use in tracing media from purchase, through processing, to eventual utilization. Using parts of sample…