The first national youth fitness evaluation conducted in the United States was in 1958. Since that time, schools have continued to administer fitness evaluations using a variety of tests with no national-level assessment of youth fitness [Institute of Medicine (IOM), 2012]. However, in September 2012, the Presidential Youth Fitness Program (PYFP)…

Student assessment is dependent on the educational views of the teacher. Arts pedagogy in comprehensive schools has several approaches, orientations, and even genres, each in turn having hidden practices of student evaluation. These stem on the one hand from the pedagogical tradition of the field (music, visual arts, drama, craft) and on the other…

Many educators believe that comprehensive school reform (CSR) holds real promise for improving schools, as many CSR programs are based in research and have documented success. However, in the past year, there has been increased emphasis on CSR programs' evidence of effectiveness and scrutiny of CSR evaluations' degree of rigor. Questions exist…

Afterschool programs are rich with educational opportunities. Programs can make what is learned during the traditional day vibrant and relevant to the lives of children. Comprehensive programs that are integrated into the regular school program and draw on resources within the community can yield positive outcomes for children. Key to this…

Programs targeting at-risk young adolescents, aged 10 to 15 years, were studied through a literature review and examination of issues related to evaluating programs for at-risk youth, and site visits to 9 programs at 6 locations. Chapter 1 introduces the study and its objectives, and chapter 2 reviews the literature on youth at risk. Chapter 3…

In the late 1990s the Texas Education Agency advocated the transformation of all counseling services into developmental guidance programs. This document describes the process undertaken and the lessons learned when evaluating a small, rural school district in north Texas in order to begin this model transformation. The purpose of the study was to…

Central to this project, which designed a staff development prototype, was the need for preservice and inservice staff development designed to improve skills required for successful performance of guidance personnel. The project was conducted during an 18-month period in five phases. Phase 1 involved integrating existing California and American…

A system for evaluating and monitoring child development projects, with possible computerization capabilities, was developed for the State of Pennsylvania in connection with 26 child development projects funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission. The Ecological Monitoring Information System (EMIS), provides a series of ecological measurement…