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The Wabash Valley Education Center serves a 13-county area in north-central and northwest Indiana. The Center has two goals: 1) to assist local school systems in devising and developing curricular innovations and aiding in the development of teaching procedures and teaching materials and 2) to serve as a demonstration center. Two main services are offered 1) specialists in several fields work with individual teachers and schools in the region to improve various content areas and 2) a wide variety of materials and resources are available for loan to teachers and schools. The detailed information provided in the document includes 1) meetings, conferences, and workshops funded by the administrative budget 1967-1970; 2) report of special studies commissioned by the Center; 3) a survey to determine the over-all impact of the Center 1967-1970; 4) inservice program planning and implementation; 5) instructional materials center; 6) language arts project; 7) special education project; 8) secondary science project; 9) social studies program; and 10) elementary science project. (MBM)

Two major questions were researched: (1) Does the environment of a school as perceived by its students relate to the organizational climate of the school as perceived by its faculty? and (2) Do certain components of the educational institution (organization, program, human resources, and material resources) relate to faculty perception of organizational climate as well as to student perception of environmental press? The sample included 595 staff members and 888 students from 18 public secondary schools in Indiana. Included in the document are a bibliography, copies of the questionnaires, and appendixes containing data report forms and information about the schools' characteristics. (Author/MLF)

A Title III ESEA study sought to determine the feasibility of establishing a central data processing service by the Wabash Valley Education Center for its member schools. First, current applications of data processing in education were reviewed to acquire detailed specifications for an educational data processing center's hardware, software, and liveware or personnel. Then, surveys, interviews, and other means were used to determine what the Center should do to establish such a facility. This part of the study had six dimensions: Assessment of need and identification of services, operational considerations, resource requirements, fiscal considerations, time considerations, and a pilot study of a computerized payroll problem. It was concluded that although sizable capital outlays would be required to establish a data processing center, manual data processing activities carried out by local schools could be eliminated and more services could be provided. The following recommendations were made: (1) A highly competent and capable staff for the data processing division should be developed; (2) a hardware configuration should be based upon the types of services to be provided; (3) operations should be planned on a priority basis, with highest priority going to the least complex services; and (4) primary attention must be focused on completeness and accuracy of output before it is disseminated. (SS)