With today's technology, Extension professionals have a variety of tools available for program evaluation. This article describes an innovative platform called VoiceThread that has been used in many classrooms but also is useful for conducting virtual focus group research. I explain how this tool can be used to collect qualitative participant…

States, school districts, and schools across the country are increasingly implementing multi-tier systems of support (MTSS) to improve outcomes for all students. Kansas is no exception. The Kansas MTSS is designed to improve outcomes for all students by instituting system-level change across the classroom, school, district, and state. Such…

Researchers, educators, professional organizations, administrators, parents, and policy makers have increased their involvement in the assessment and evaluation of early childhood education programs. This interest has developed swiftly during the last decades. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the National…

This article describes the process by which one study utilized qualitative methods to create items for a multi dimensional scale to measure twelve step program affiliation. The process included interviewing fourteen addicted persons while in twelve step focused treatment about specific pros (things they like or would miss out on by not being…

Seven papers are presented, which are designed to introduce evaluators and other consultants to the complex realities of the changing world of business and industry. Topics include how the practice of evaluation is changing in organizations in transition, and evaluation from the perspective of its role in changing organizations. (SLD)

Assesses the effectiveness of a local antismoking contest in Bloomington (Minnesota) that was coordinated with a statewide campaign. Interviews were conducted with 218 local and 198 statewide participants. Finds that the local contest had a higher impact than the statewide contest. (FMW)

Since the last comprehensive museum survey was conducted in 1971-72, no current data has been gathered about the museum field. Because the field has not remained static it has become difficult to apply the 1971-72 survey findings to current museum situations. Because of this, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) was requested to…

The Service Delivery Assessment (SDA) model is a human services evaluation tool which offers a viable alternative to more traditional approaches and is appropriate for small local evaluations as well as large national studies. There are five phases to an SDA study: assignment, pre-assessment, design, analysis, and communication of the findings.…

An assessment was made in 1978 of the longterm effects on school media utilization of Project Discovery (1964-1967), which was designed to test the effect of "maximum availability" of instructional materials on curriculum, on student attitudes, achievement, creativity, and motivation, and on teaching methods and techniques. The project…

A syllabus analysis instrument was developed to assist program evaluators, administrators and faculty in the identification of skills that students use as they complete their college coursework. While this instrument can be tailored for use with a variety of learning domains, we used it to assess students' use of and exposure to computer…

Evaluates a point-of-purchase nutrition education program in Pawtucket (Rhode Island). Uses consumer interviews to evaluate the effect of awareness of shelf labels on purchase behavior. Reports increases in shoppers' ability to identify correct shelf labels and in the number of shoppers who were encouraged to buy the identified foods. (FMW)

A repeated measures design was used to assess the effects of a methadone maintenance program in several California locations. Subjects were 720 Chicano and Anglo men and women participating in rehabilitation programs for heroin addicts. The subjects were interviewed between 1978-1981, and the average follow-up time after initial treatment was 4-6…

Telephone interviews were conducted with key individuals in each of the 50 states to gather information on both the most successful and the least successful technology-based educational projects at the elementary and secondary levels in each state. The survey was designed to elicit information on the following: (1) the instructional needs…

The parents of students in the second year of a kindergarten French immersion program were surveyed to determine their experiences in the program, and a sample of the children who had spent one or two years in immersion was interviewed by a procedure developed for assessing the French language skills. The interview procedure was planned to assess…

To determine the nature of camp for senior citizens, four participant observers (staff members) conducted open-ended interviews with campers at a five-day residential camp in Oregon. Results showed universal satisfaction with the camp experience. Campers valued the wide range of activities, comfortable places to socialize, and staff relations with…