The keys to success when selecting a microcomputer are to analyze needs carefully and determine specific criteria desired from the computer. This article provides health educators with objective criteria for such decision making. (JMK)

Reviews needs assessment history and extant techniques and offers a model for generating needs assessments based upon five general purposes of front-end analysis and their corresponding types of items--problem finding; problem selecting; knowledge/skill proving; finding feelings; and cause finding. Thirty-three sources are appended. (EJS)

Walla Walla Community College used a seven-step strategic planning process to develop an agricultural program reflecting the needs of students and the agriculture community. (SK)

Proposes a model high school curriculum featuring five clusters of knowledge, including cultural studies, citizenship and societal studies, science and technology, health and recreation, and skills in learning, communicating, and thinking. Presents a "stratified needs assessment instrument" to assess the instructional time to be devoted to each…

Educators in Virginia were asked to identify instructional objectives in social studies for grades K-12. Results indicated that the grades K-3 should focus on affective educational goals, grades 4-6 goals should emphasize cognitive outcomes, grade 7-8 goals should stress skill development and cognitive educational objectives, and grades 9-12…

Professionals, paraprofessionals, and parents (N=207) of visually handicapped students were surveyed to determine needed topics for a conference on educational issues of students with visual impairments. Topic areas receiving highest ratings included low vision, parent role, public policy, individualized education programs, and multiple…

The purpose of this paper is two-fold: first, it identifies a number of needs assessment issues and, second, it describes the operationalization of a needs assessment project based in one particular college setting. It confronts the realities of practice with the ideals of instructional modeling. (CE)

Discusses policies and programs that have evolved over decades of searching for solutions to crime and urban decline and suggests that more emphasis be given to an inventory of populations at risk, rather than behavior problems of individuals. (Author/JCD)

In-service education as prescribed here should be based on each individual's evaluation of his/her own behavior and formulation of a plan for personal and professional growth. (MM)

Improvement of a school's discipline program can begin with the opinion inventories published by the National Study of School Evaluation. Once teachers, students, and parents have assessed strengths and weaknesses, an appropriate plan can be chosen. This article outlines five approaches. (WD)

Suggests that it might take from two to six months for a national topic of average interest to register among those of importance to the public, and that agenda-setting researchers look a few months prior to fieldwork for the best match between the media agenda and the public's agenda. (FL)

Community education (CE) is discussed as a process and program for community improvement. A three-dimensional dynamic program design called "The Cube," which serves as a model for CE evaluation, is presented. (Author/JOW)

Summarizes the reactions and perceptions of community members, educators, and students in l5 Iowa school districts who participated in community efforts to express attitudes towards needs assessment and the implementation of Phase I of the Phi Delta Kappa educational planning model. (JD)

A facility assessment system is used for an annual objective appraisal of how well the school district is accomplishing its maintenance objectives, and as a planning tool for allocating its scarce resources. (Author/MLF)

This paper reviews and discusses some critical issues related to the use of questionnaire surveys in educational planning. Ten brief sections discuss survey objectives, coverage, questionnaire design, administration, validity, nonresponse, cost considerations, coding, statistical analysis, and interpretation. Five illustrative questionnaire…