This study is a content analysis of selected federally funded leadership preparation program evaluation proposals for the 2008, 2009, and 2010 School Leadership Program grants. The United States Department of Education (USDE) began awarding funding in 2002 to develop and implement preparation programs for aspiring and current assistant principals…

This paper outlines purposes of program evaluation and provides practical information to help individuals from a wide spectrum of backgrounds use evaluation to move their program ahead in a purposeful manner. Wisely moving ahead requires an assessment of an organization's past and present as well as an examination of its assumptions about the…

This chapter discusses current methods of formative evaluation and suggests that these methods themselves need to be subjected to more critical research and evaluation in order to provide them with a more scientific base. Topics addressed include problems and methods associated with data gathering, evaluation designs, number of subjects available,…

Many evaluation researchers are now attempting to synthesize quantitative and qualitative approaches. Although such efforts appear to carry great promise, some subtleties and incompatibilities of these approaches are perhaps being overlooked. Implications for social inquiry are discussed. (Author/GDC)

This paper acknowledges that research on school dropouts presents problems in the definitions and computation of dropout indices. It considers a variety of methods for computing dropout rates, using dropout rates which are real and which were available at the end of the 1986-1987 school year. Fall enrollment, average daily membership, and total…

Describes the characteristics of a statewide principal evaluation system. Even when an evaluation system is detailed, specific, and statewide, inconsistencies develop because of the special nature of principals' work. The system breaks down in the sampling of performance and outputs, and in the communication of negative feedback. (PS)

Indicators of mathematics and science education progress are important to policymakers and the public in order to evaluate the quality of education. Recent reports have evaluated existing indicators and suggested core aspects of mathematics and science education that an indicator system should evaluate. This note discusses two fundamental aspects…

This article describes practices effective in assessing communication and language in persons with autism. It reviews basic principles that govern assessment in the discipline of speech-language pathology, discusses features associated with autism that affect communication and language assessment, and provides strategies to address these features.…