Since taking office, the President has emphasized the need to use evidence and rigorous evaluation in budget, management, and policy decisions to make government work effectively. This need has only grown in the current fiscal environment. Agencies should demonstrate the use of evidence throughout their Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 budget submissions.…

From the 1980s to the present, educational accountability in the United States has grown dramatically. Such accountability in U.S. school districts, although driven primarily by external demands, has internal manifestations as well. The chapter traces the historical development of internal evaluation in American school districts, then highlights…

In recent years, there has been increasing attention to the importance of interagency collaboration for improving community well-being, environmental and public health, and educational outcomes. This article uses a mixed-methods approach including network analysis to examine the changes in interagency collaboration in one site funded by the Safe…

This case study of one middle school focuses on improving teachers' skills in data-driven decision making through analysis of student work and their own professional practice. The expectation that schools will make adequate yearly progress has pushed evaluation practice down to the teacher level, where teachers are asked to analyze and…

Evaluation must take into account both executive and legislative politics and their interactions. A five-part continuum evaluation process is suggested for the development of a policy question and its translation into knowledge that is credible, timely, responsive, and usable. Evaluators have a major responsibility in this process. (Author/JAZ)

Evaluation synthesis, a meta-evaluation method developed by the General Accounting Office to improve evaluation utilization by legislators, is described. It is designed to: (1) focus on the information needs and priorities of legislators, and (2) ensure continuous communication between sponsor and evaluator. The strengths and limitations of this…

The Experience Based Career Education (EDCE) program serves as a focal point of a cast study documenting how the National Institute of Education secured Office of Education funds to demonstrate an R&D innovation. Serious questions are raised about the regulations-writing process and the use of evaluation information. (Author/LC)

The Holtzman Project at Northwestern University reviewed educational program evaluations at the federal, state, and local levels of government. This paper focuses on the administration of the project, including constraints on its operations, the strategic decisions that seemed correct at the time, and some decisions that now seem wrong. (BW)

Design and implementation of a curriculum evaluation plan for the vocational education program (occupational education under the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Act) of a large correctional system are described. An outside evaluator assisted in designing and conducting the first year's evaluation. The 1991-92 curriculum used was…