For more than three decades, American colleges and universities have made determined efforts to increase their numbers of students of color, particularly African-American and Hispanic students. But bringing students into higher education is not the same as ensuring that they succeed. The persistence rates of African Americans and Hispanics…

This testimony summarizes in four propositions results from a review of recent estimates of the net federal, state, or local costs of immigration and is designed to explore why these cost estimates vary so widely and how to develop more credible cost estimates. First, the testimony proposes that various studies of the cost of immigration agree…

With accurate information, educators are better able to make effective decisions. Besides being used to assess student performance, a complete program of data collection and use can also show educators how management skills, individual learning styles, and other elements affect student achievement. This digest provides an overview of how…

This document is the laboratory manual for the Physics 152 course at Purdue University. It includes a laboratory introduction, hardware and software guide, and laboratory report guide. Labs include: (1) "Measurement Uncertainty and Propagation"; (2) "Introduction to Computer Data Acquisition and Relationships between Position,…

This document provides a summary and evaluation of the methodological procedures and results of the full-scale implementation of the Beginning Postsecondary Student Longitudinal Study Second Follow-up, 1990-94 (BPS:90/94). The study was conducted for the National Center for Education Statistics by Research Triangle Institute with the assistance of…

Although most school districts and schools are routinely involved in data collection, they do not typically use the data they collect in a systematic fashion to identify strengths and weaknesses and develop improvement strategies. One reason for the lack of data use is the perception that the data are being collected for someone else's purposes.…

Employers, unions, and government agencies are placing increasing emphasis on evaluation of workplace literacy programs. Because workplace literacy programs are generally short, focused on workplace-specific literacy tasks, and small, the standardized tests that have traditionally been used to assess school programs are inappropriate for…

This study provides guidelines for using electronic mail for data collection and sheds light on some of the substantive issues related to research via this medium. Researchers creating electronic interview situations for the study stressed that the atmosphere should be informal and conversational. Interviewees were encouraged to use typical…

The final versions of nationally developed standards for science education have recently been published for use by practitioners, and it is obvious that these standards will have some influence on how science education is conducted. The effects of the standards on teaching and curriculum development can be anticipated, but their effects on…

The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) is a system of surveys designed to collect data from primary providers (institutions) of postsecondary education. It is the core postsecondary education data collection program of the National Center for Education Statistics. This disc contains one analysis file that includes variables…

Since 1988, a team composed of staff from 10 educational regional laboratories, teachers, administrators, and students have worked to become a learning community. This report describes the development and activities of the restructuring collaborative that gathered information on students and learning. Chapters 2 through 8 present case studies from…

The National Education Statistical Agenda Committee of the National Forum on Education Statistics established a Task Force in 1995 to study how a state or local education agency might best collect and report data on the incidence of crime, violence, and disciplinary behavior. The Task Force, which consisted of a core group of data providers from…

This publication is the culmination of a major effort to help establish a common terminology, descriptions, and coding structure for course information at the secondary level of education. There had previously been no standard system for collecting, maintaining, reporting, and exchanging comparable information about student course taking patterns.…

This book is part of a seven-volume series for evaluating programs and services in today's K-12 schools. It details strategies to evaluate staff-development programs, focusing on the use of formative evaluation. Following the introduction, six vignettes illustrating the application of the strategies to real-life experiences are presented. They…

Originating from a manual prepared for a UNESCO workshop, this handbook addresses concepts, approaches, and methods required for planning and management of education at the microlevel. Part I introduces microplanning and management as an important component of overall development efforts, concentrating on education. Chapter 1 describes the…