Using Student Achievement Data to Support Instructional Decision Making
(Note: While this is a K-12 document, it serves as a reminder of good practices)

This guide offers five recommendations to help educators effectively use data to monitor students’ academic progress and evaluate instructional practices. The guide recommends that schools set a clear vision for schoolwide data use, develop a data-driven culture, and make data part of an ongoing cycle of instructional improvement. The guide also recommends teaching students how to use their own data to set learning goals.

To view the site, please visit: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/pdf/practiceguides/dddm_pg_092909.pdf

Postsecondary Institutions and Price of Attendance in the United States: Fall 2008, Degrees and Other Awards Conferred: 2007-08, and 12-Month Enrollment: 2007-08

During 2008-09, full-time, in-state undergraduates at public 4-year institutions paid an average of $6,070 for tuition and fees, and out-of-state undergraduates averaged more than twice that amount ($14,378). The National Center for Education Statistics has released "Postsecondary Institutions and Price of Attendance in the United States: Fall 2008, Degrees and Other Awards Conferred: 2007-08, and 12-Month Enrollment: 2007-08." The report uses the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) fall 2008 data to examine institutions by such characteristics as tuition, fees, enrollment, and number of degrees conferred during the period of July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008, by Title IV postsecondary institutions. Other findings include:

• During the 2007-08 academic year, Title IV institutions in the United States reported enrolling 25.9 million individual graduate and undergraduate students.
  
• About 3.9 million postsecondary awards (degrees or certificates) were conferred by Title IV institutions during the 2007-08 academic year.

To view the site, please visit: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2009165.

What to Do When Data Are Missing in Group Randomized Controlled Trials
(Note: While this is a K-12 document, it serves as a reminder of good practices)

This NCEE Technical Methods report examines how to address the problem of missing data in the analysis of data in Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) of educational interventions, with a particular focus on the common educational situation in which groups of students such as entire classrooms or schools are randomized.

Reports in this series are designed for use by researchers, methodologists, and evaluation specialists, to provide guidance in resolving or advancing challenges to evaluation methods.

To view, download and print the full report in PDF format, please visit: http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/pdf/20090049.pdf.