Social and emotional learning (SEL) has been defined in various ways. One of the most commonly cited models, that of the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), defines SEL as "the process through which students and adults acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand…

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…

With the evolving technologies available to educators and the increased importance of including technologies in the classroom, it is critical for instructors to understand how to successfully utilize these emerging technologies within their curriculum. To ensure they are prepared, further study on the best practices and challenges of…

Written in a refreshing conversational style, this text thoroughly prepares students, program administrators, and new evaluators to conduct evaluations or to use them in their work. The book's question-driven focus and clear discussions about the importance of fostering evaluation use by building collaborative relationships with stakeholders set…

Recent trends have shown increasing privatization of standardization activities under various corporations, trade associations, and consortia, raising significant public policy issues about how the public interest may be represented. This book establishes a framework of analysis for public policy discussion and debate. Discussing topics such as…

All evaluators face the challenge of striving to adhere to the highest possible standards of ethical conduct. Translating the AEA's Guiding Principles and the Joint Committee's Program Evaluation Standards into everyday practice, however, can be a complex, uncertain, and frustrating endeavor. Moreover, acting in an ethical fashion can require…

"Evaluation Theory, Models, and Applications" is designed for evaluators and students who need to develop a commanding knowledge of the evaluation field: its history, theory and standards, models and approaches, procedures, and inclusion of personnel as well as program evaluation. This important book shows how to choose from a growing…

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…

This study applied four direct magnitude estimation (DME) standards to the evaluation of speech from four individuals with dysarthria and three neurologically normal speakers. It found a fixed set of sentence-level utterances was scaled differently depending on the specific standard used. Results are discussed in terms of possible standardization…

The purpose of this paper is to summarize some of the author's logical and empirical reflections on the practice of using naturalistic techniques to conduct evaluations. The main assertion to be supported by these reflections is that naturalistic evaluation is possible and in some cases powerful. This assertion is supported through a review of (1)…

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…

Thirty studies on supported employment for people with disabilities were evaluated using a proposed Social Validity Matrix. Results suggested further research should investigate alternative strategies for assessing social validity, develop systematic procedures for collecting and using social validity data, and establish functional variables…

In recent years educators have been utilizing judgmental methods, such as the ones advocated by Ebel and Angoff, to set minimum competency standards on test items. This study was designed to investigate the reliability and validity of these two procedures in setting minimum levels of performance on 175 vocational evaluator competency statements.…

This report, prepared by the Delinquency and School Environments Program of the Center for Social Organization of Schools, presents a set of standards for implementing Program Development Evaluation (PDE), a method for strengthening school organizational and research effectiveness. This report supplements an earlier account of the Program…

Colleges and universities in California may be accredited or approved by four different agencies to offer approved programs of teacher education: the State Department of Education's Office of Private Postsecondary Education (OPPE) (for private institutions); the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC); the Commission on Teacher…