Professional societies (ProSs) are instrumental in shaping science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) cultural norms. Existing legacy structures designed to serve majority groups and constructed in service of dominant norms and values present a clear obstacle to attracting, retaining, and serving minoritized STEM professionals, such…

Twitter is increasingly being used by Extension educators as a teaching and program-marketing tool. It is not enough, however, to simply use Twitter to disseminate information. Steps must be taken to evaluate program impact with quantitative and qualitative data. This article described the following Twitter evaluation metrics: unique hashtags,…

The engineering profession continues to struggle to attract new talent, in part because it is not well understood by the general public and often viewed in a negative light. Therefore, engineering professionals have called for new approaches promote better understanding and change negative perceptions. One suggested approach is for engineering…

This article highlights the role of sustainability appraisal for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). Traditional HEI appraisal systems lack a way to assess the integration of sustainability principles reflecting societal needs with the consequences of research, education and management of HEIs. Two appraisal systems are discussed. The Austrian…

New York's Cornell University spends millions of dollars and thousands of staff and volunteer hours to produce more than 1,400 events around the world each year. That's one event every six hours. Is it worth it? Do the 40,000 alumni, parents, and friends who attend feel closer to Cornell after these events? Do they disengage because Cornell didn't…

Evaluative instruments designed to assess a university's or college's institutionalization of service-learning practices have been devised and widely utilized. These instruments often come with assumptions about aligning data with decision making. To date, attempts to document community engagement practices within a department or an entire…

Informal science is a burgeoning field that operates across a broad range of venues and envisages learning outcomes for individuals, schools, families, and society. The evidence base that describes informal science, its promise, and effects is informed by a range of disciplines and perspectives, including field-based research, visitor studies, and…

Focuses on the evaluation capacity building (ECB) outreach activities of the World Bank with regard to provision of advice and assistance to individual governments. The primary story is that of the ECB lessons learned through working with a range of governments; the secondary story is how ECB is becoming a recognized and valued activity within the…

The effective evaluation of educational projects is becoming increasingly important to funding agencies and to the individuals and organizations involved in the projects. This brief "how-to" guide provides an introductory description of the purpose and basic ideas of project evaluation, and uses authentic examples from four different astronomy and…

Counseling programs in the California community colleges play a key role in helping students succeed. Over the years, the functions counseling departments perform have increased significantly, further exacerbating the ever-present pressure to serve more students in cost-effective ways. As a result of the expansion of services absent the resources…

Program theory plays a prominent role in many evaluations, not only in theory-driven evaluations. This paper presents a case study of the process of developing and refining a program's theory within a user-oriented evaluation. In user-oriented (or utilization-focused) evaluations, primary users can play a role in defining their own program theory.…

Discusses the role of libraries in providing emergent literacy experiences for children in day care and preschool programs. The importance of exposure to print is discussed, and a study is described that evaluated a library outreach program that was developed to promote emerging literacy in preschoolers. (LRW)

Increasingly, public officials in California and across the nation want to know, or at least be reassured, that public investments in what had traditionally been called university outreach programs are having desired effects on student achievement and college preparedness among targeted student groups. For the most part, such programs are now…

This outreach program designed for implementation in 1971-1972 included descriptions of: (1) initial contacts with eligible secondary schools; (2) survey of attitudes; (3) large-group career activities; (4) school personnel training; (5) group and individual counseling; (6) career conferences; and (7) parent and community group activities. The…

After undertaking the time and energy consuming task of reference assessment, the library might discover that it needs to tweak delivery of service, weed and update the collection, upgrade workstations, or advance marketing strategies to get patrons to use reference materials and services. Like any other product or service, reference departments…