Underlying all What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) products are WWC Study Review Guides, which are intended for use by WWC certified reviewers to assess studies against the WWC evidence standards. As part of an ongoing effort to increase transparency, promote collaboration, and encourage widespread use of the WWC standards, the Institute of Education…

This document provides step-by-step instructions on how to complete the Study Review Guide (SRG, Version S3, V2) for single-case designs (SCDs). Reviewers will complete an SRG for every What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) review. A completed SRG should be a reviewer's independent assessment of the study, relative to the criteria specified in the review…

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) expects all Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grantees to conduct an evaluation of their programs. Experience with earlier rounds of TIF grants has shown that evaluations can provide valuable information for managing and improving TIF-supported activities, as well as evidence that these activities have had a…

This document provides guidance about how to describe studies and report their findings in a way that is clear, complete, and transparent. This document does not include information about how studies are judged against What Works Clearinghouse evidence standards. For information about What Works Clearinghouse evidence standards, please refer to…

This "What Works Clearinghouse Procedures and Standards Handbook (Version 3.0)" provides a detailed description of the standards and procedures of the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC). The remaining chapters of this Handbook are organized to take the reader through the basic steps that the WWC uses to develop a review protocol, identify…

Written by a social worker for social work students, this is a nuts and bolts guide to statistics that presents complex calculations and concepts in clear, easy-to-understand language. It includes numerous examples, data sets, and issues that students will encounter in social work practice. The first section introduces basic concepts and terms to…

This is a book about quality and how to control quality through deliberate actions on the part of the professionals developing and implementing the instances of instruction available at an organization. Quality control theory favors no particular learning philosophy and is only directed towards aspects of how, what, where and when measurements are…

When evaluating the effectiveness of an educational program, multiple matrix sampling is particularly effective and efficient when the goal of the evaluation is estimating group (as opposed to individual) performance. The technique is described in some detail, with its advantages and disadvantages, and examples of its application are given.…

Designed for use with Research for Better Schools' evaluation system, this guide focuses upon basic concepts and statistical procedures applicable to specific research hypotheses emerging from evaluation questions. The first of three sections presents a discussion of descriptive statistics in terms of frequency, central tendency, variability, and…

Seven methods for measuring and comparing value added in higher education are considered; six are index methods (all found unsatisfactory for lack of empirical support) and a seventh is proposed which calculates value added as the difference between the outcomes achieved and those predicted from national (United Kingdom) data. The advantages of a…

When studying different types of returns to education, educational reforms are commonly used in the economics literature as a source of exogenous variation in education. The Swedish compulsory school reform is one example; the reform extended compulsory education throughout the country, in different municipalities at different points in time. Such…

This document describes the revision of the Center for the Study of Evaluation (CSE) Program Evaluation Kit, including planning, development, and/or revisions of specific components. The kit is a set of books, originally developed in 1978, and designed to provide step-by-step procedural guides to help people conduct evaluations of educational…

Evaluation can be crucial to help meet the needs and requirements of the teacher, students, and curriculum in distance education. Distance education usually encompasses a wide diversity of students, multi-site classrooms, little opportunity for interaction among students, and unfamiliar technology. Because of these uncertainties, evaluation of…

This guide is designed to help educators plan and carry out evaluations of adult education programs. Following an introduction, Section 2 discusses how the evaluation process fits into the concept and normal cycle of program development. Section 3 describes the stages of the evaluation process, including needs assessment, program planning, process…

This manual is a resource of ideas and suggestions for comprehensive statewide planning of vocational education. It is directed toward both experienced and inexperienced vocational education planners. The data analysis and display techniques presented are useful for producing information for developing state plans and for communicating data-based…