From 1980 through 1983, 41 articles in selected professional journals dealt with summative evaluation of training and development efforts in business and industry. All of the standard components of program evaluation were addressed either directly or indirectly in them, in varying degree and depth. Although one must contact the primary audience to…

Seven studies commissioned by the U.S. Department of Labor measuring the net market impacts of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act are reviewed. Their purpose was to generate informed debate on the efficacy of quasi-experimental designs and structural economic models to evaluate federally subsidized employment and training programs. (BS)

Recent evaluations of manpower training claim that: (1) nonexperimental methods produce unreliable estimates of program impacts and (2) randomized experiments are necessary for reliability. National Supported Work Demonstration data are used to reexamine nonexperimental estimates of net program impact on posttraining earnings of high school…

A review of scientific studies of remedial training programs indicates a need for advance planning. Suggested requirements for administration of a successful program include: determining training needs and objectives, design and implementation of training programs, and evaluation of training effectiveness. Most existing evaluations suffer from…

Discusses the changing nature of vocational education in the community college, offers models and strategies for organizing and delivering vocational education, and presents evidence on program effectiveness and outcomes associated with student participation. Notes that for some vocational education approaches--for example, tech prep--little is…

A review of the literature was conducted to describe the field of program evaluation, to identify useful sources of information on the topic, and to outline concepts and methodologies that have been proposed for planning and conducting evaluations of education and training programs. The results of the review showed that the failures of early…

Several social objectives influence government sponsorship of employment programs: (1) training for mobility to reduce disruptions caused by change; and (2) increasing skill levels to increase productivity. Evaluation of program effectiveness considers whether the program served its target groups, what activities were provided, and what the…

Information processing and memorial processes that have been identified by contemporary research as important factors in human learning and cognitive activity are shown to provide a basis for explaining and predicting transfer of training effects. Four major factors are discussed in separate sections: the relationship between retrieval cues and…

Information on training and remediation activities for unemployed and underemployed persons is described and analyzed with emphasis on programs authorized by the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA). Chapter 1 overviews the dilemma of persons with employment and earnings problems and approaches to dealing with the problem. CETA, its…

This report is based on an intensive 18-month ethnographic study of 47 young fathers enrolled in Public/Private Ventures' Young Unwed Fathers Pilot Project. It presents a detailed look at selected aspects of the lives of these fathers before and during program participation, as well as outcomes of the pilot intervention. Following an introductory…

A study was conducted to determine what was happening in literacy programs as a result of the major welfare reform law passed in 1996, and whether basic skills instruction was part of the solution. A nationwide search for exemplary programs that are using basic skills instruction as a fundamental component of assisting welfare recipients in moving…

Drawn from the reports of separate research efforts conducted at the National Center for Research in Vocational Education, the four chapters in this volume examine from a variety of perspectives what vocational education should accomplish and is accomplishing. An executive summary begins the volume. In the first chapter, Rupert Evans examines the…

Changing views of models of evaluation are considered, with a review of models for program evaluation debated in the 1970s. The evaluation of a police probationer training program illustrates the relationship between the democratic evaluation advocated by B. MacDonald and action research. (SLD)

This report examines the following three aspects of Hispanic employment: (1) the consequences of leaving school without skills; (2) at-risk Hispanic youth as workers; and (3) the challenge of providing practical, rewarding jobs. Among the conclusions are the following: (1) several categories of at-risk Hispanic youth can receive long-range…

This review presents a summary of the research on displaced worker programs and implications and recommendations for practice that the research supports. Chapter I is an overview of the displaced worker problem. It considers the extent of worker displacement and job loss and summarizes future projections. Chapter II discusses existing programs for…