The Nellie Mae Education Foundation created this Student-Centered Learning Continuum (SCL Continuum) to establish the characteristics of high-quality, student-centered learning in classrooms, schools, and districts. This continuum is based upon existing research and cutting-edge practice, incorporates the experiences of experts and practitioners,…

Selection bias pervades the evaluation of supplemental instruction (SI) in non-experimental settings. This brief note provides a formal framework to understand this issue. The objective is to contribute to the accumulation of credible evidence on the impact of SI.

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) evaluates research studies that look at the effectiveness of education programs, products, practices, and policies, which the WWC calls "interventions." Many studies of education interventions make claims about impacts on students' outcomes. Some studies have designs that enable readers to make causal…

After months of waiting, the grant reviews came back: "excellent," "excellent," and "fair." What?! How can this be? Why is the third review so out of line with the first two? On more than one occasion a principal investigator (PI) has been frustrated not only by a negative funding decision but more so by the accompanying reviewer evaluation forms…

As bibliometric indicators are objective, reliable, and cost-effective measures of peer-reviewed research outputs, they are expected to play an increasingly important role in research assessment/management. Recently, a bibliometric approach was developed and integrated within the evaluation framework of research funded by the National Cancer…

This report is a product of an European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) Workshop "Assessing educational quality: Knowledge production and the role of experts" hosted by the Norwegian Agency for Quality Assurance in Education (NOKUT) in Oslo in February, 2008. The workshop gathered representatives from higher…

Discussion of the agenda for research and practice in graduate and professional education identifies and discusses five arenas for assessment; demand; admission criteria; program quality; persistence; and student learning outcomes. Specific questions to be addressed and additional considerations are noted for each arena. (MSE)

The Joint Dissemination Review Panel (JDRP), part of the U.S. Department of Education, is one of the most important federal mechanisms for recognizing quality in education. Although it has reviewed close to 700 projects in its 15-year history, the JDRP is still not widely known in the field of evaluation. This paper analyzes the JDRP process and…

Evaluating the effectiveness of career guidance programs is a complex process, and few comprehensive models for evaluating such programs exist. Evaluation of career guidance programs has been hampered by the myth that program outcomes are uniform and monolithic. Findings from studies of attribute treatment interactions have revealed only a few…

There is a need for a set of organizing principles that will provide a clear rationale for the field of program evaluation. It is contended that the concept of evaluation promoted by Ralph W. Tyler, pioneer in the field, suggests such a set of principles. Data were derived from a two-year prescriptive case study of Tyler's contributions through…

This report is an attempt to conceptualize a comprehensive framework for evaluating vocational education quality. It is intended to inform policymakers of the breadth of the elements of quality and to suggest an integrated framework for assessing quality to vocational education evaluation theoreticians. Chapter 1 offers preliminary considerations.…

Described is a rationale and process that can be used for the evaluation of environmental education programs. Expectations, planning, results, and using results are all discussed as steps in the evaluation process. (CW)

Reports on a cross-sectional evaluation of content achievement among 71 college-level psychology majors. Finds introductory students scored higher in social psychology but experimental psychology scores improved among advanced students. Also finds psychology students scored better than management majors on a standardized reasoning test. (CFR)

A successful program of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) in composition will require collaboration between writing teachers and computer experts. Although programs can be carefully evaluated prior to their purchase, the effectiveness of a composition CAI program can be judged only after conducting empirical research with specific student…

Written for local, State, and Federal vocational educators, this publication discusses the feasibility of implementing recommendations from some recent evaluations of educational excellence. Criteria for estimating the appropriateness of evaluation findings are given, and recommendations are offered for creating an infrastructure among local,…