November 2010

Welcome to the November 2010 NRS eNotes!

Every few months NRS eNotes highlight additions and attractions of the NRSWeb site, as well as inform you of any upcoming events. Forward this on to other adult education staff in your state and encourage others to sign up to eNotes by emailing nrs@air.org!

Proposed Changes to the NRS   

On August 4-5, 2010, the National Reporting System for the 21st Century Congress of Adult Education State Directors provided a forum for state directors to make their voices heard concerning proposed changes to the NRS, based on issues papers developed by OVAE. The process continues with ongoing feedback from state directors and revisions to the proposed NRS changes.

Look for future announcements about these changes from OVAE.

Great Data System, Great Data

What does it take to create a great data system?

We interviewed decision-makers and doers in Montana, New York, Rhode Island, Texas and Utah about the challenges and triumphs in their most recent effort.

Find out what they learned in the process and how it might help you plan your next data system uprade. Read More

Finding Your Strengths to Build Your State Strategic Plan

The October 2010 training of selected state directors and their staff on using data to inform decisions and build their state plan received man compliments from the attendees.

Thanks to all NRS staff for the incredible amount of work put into the models and data collection over time.  I know it was a tremendous workload and your efforts make our tasks manageable and your efforts are appreciated! ~ Iowa State Staff

Materials from this meeting, which included a half-day interactive session on developing a communications plan, will be posted to the NRSWeb soon.

The Next NRS Project

The NRS support project team is now embarking on a new 5 year contract! 

A few of the plans for the project include:

• New online courses on building report cards, developing a database, and creating professional development learning communities.
• Face-to-face professional development on Strengthening Fiscal Skills, creating an evaluation learning community, and Research Tools for Longitudinal Studies
• Facilitated courses on NRS Basics, Report Cards, and Delivering Adult Education Online

We will also look to our Technical Working Group to advise us of state needs from the adult education field.

Did you know...

That there is a Learning to be an NRS Data Detective course available on the NRSWeb? 

The Learning to be an NRS Data Detective course illustrates the art of being a data detective and using data to monitor performance, understand programs, and plan and evaluate program improvements efforts.

More information about this course and other NRS online courses can be found here.