This guide is designed to help districts and schools evaluate reform efforts related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), including School Improvement Grants. It includes practical, how-to tips for conducting program evaluations, whether one takes a "do-it-yourself" approach or seeks outside assistance to evaluate reform…

Reports on observations of the guidance and counseling services offered in nine schools in the San Francisco Unified School District, California. Provides a history of the development of these programs, discusses the role of the counselor, sets forth the expected tasks of the counselor while comparing these with the actual work being performed,…

This brochure is a checklist to rate school compliance with the standards for school guidance programs in Maryland, which were developed by the Maryland State Department of Education. The first set of standards addresses the philosophy and goals of school guidance programs in Maryland and the extent to which program goals and objectives are…

Designed for school board members, superintendents, administrators, counselors, and teachers, the paper outlines steps toward the systematic development of a guidance program. Following a rationale and introduction, the paper recommends a specific process for program development: (1) the identification of student needs through formal needs…

Under development in a Maryland district, the Competency-Based Systems Oriented Guidance Program described here combines (1) a focus on helping all students become competent in knowledge, attitude, and skills and (2) a systems orientation addressing the entire spectrum of student life by providing a common language, methods of information…

This tool was created in order to help young people and adults develop a common language for talking about how to improve schools. The tool provides educators, young people, administrators, policy makers, parents, community members and other stake holders with a common lens for reflecting on their schools and for planning change. It can also be…

In this follow-up study to "College Knowledge: What Latino Parents Need to Know and Why They Don't Know It," [see ED469295], the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute examines how postsecondary institutions are mobilizing to address the need for college information among Latino parents. The primary objective of "Reaching Higher Ground" is to profile in…

This handbook is intended as reference material for Ohio's PRIDE (Program Review for the Improvement, Development, Expansion of Vocational Education and Guidance) Vocational Education Planning Districts (VEPDs) coordinators, service representatives, and instructional chairpersons. It is divided into four content areas. The section on the PRIDE…

This manual is designed to supply the information needed to enable schools, school districts, county offices of education, trainers of educators, and others to offer the independent study instructional strategy to students at all grade levels through high school. It contains the California state guidelines and legal requirements for independent…

Designed to measure the effectiveness of selected school special services, the evaluative instruments collected here are the result of several years of research and refinement. The descriptive criteria developed by the author may be used as a guide for initiating a new program or applied for self-evaluation or team evaluation of existing services.…