Using Information System Technology to Support Educational

The project will determine the technical feasibility of developing state-of-the art information system technology for districts and schools that addresses the accountability, planning, management, and evaluation functions essential to achieving comprehensive education reform and increased productivity in education. This research and development effort aims to overcome the serious lack of information system capability in districts and schools across the nation, and involves the application of the latest relational database technology to the information requirements implicit in the nationwide mandate for higher learning standards for all students and new demands for accountability at district and school levels. The project will produce a user-friendly, but highly sophisticated full featured-relational database software product that provides: 1. unparalleled capability to create an integrated database, linking student performance data, demographic data, and data on school programs and practices; and, 2. unlimited capacity to disaggregate data. These capacities will allow school systems to: 1. demonstrate student and school performance against high learning standards; 2. identify factors that account for variations in student performance; and, 3. address equity factors in determining the extent to which programs and practices correlate with success for different types of students.