Proceeding from the premise that effective educational management requires effective information management, this paper identifies requirements to consider in designing student information systems, and describes how the Toronto Public Schools' system meets these requirements. In addition to examining the common characteristics of information management systems, the paper discusses (1) linking the information system to a central activity of the educational system, (2) making information management compatible with the social processes and human interactions of education, (3) appropriately dividing the tasks of information management, (4) diagnosing the system's reliability, and (5) ensuring that the system responds to users' needs. Appended are copies of two documents used to compile student records. (MCG)