A method called multi-attribute utility analysis (MAUA) provides a decision-making framework that facilitates comparative analysis of multiple real-world decision alternatives with unique complex attributes. Utility analysis as a measure of effectiveness has been minimally used by educational researchers to date, despite clear relevance in complex…

In this article, M. Rebecca Kilburn and Jill S. Cannon report on First Born, a targeted universal home visiting program operating in over half of New Mexico counties. Created in a small town in response to a lack of support for pregnant women and new parents, First Born adapts features of other home visiting programs, responding to conditions…

This paper presents the rationale and content of PASS, a Danish school-based prevention program targeting cannabis-culture-related beliefs among high school students (i.e. typically 15-19 years). The objective of the program is to prevent or delay initiation of cannabis use and limit use among students who already initiated. PASS is a combined…

Despite federal regulations requiring measurable individualized education programs (IEPs), IEPs are often vague and unfocused, making them difficult to use in guiding instructional planning. Although a well-written IEP can be time consuming and labor intensive, a clearly written IEP, based on documented student needs, can and should be a guidepost…

The Media Development Project for the Hearing Impaired has adapted media products on decision making and concept development and has designed two new products, a multimedia package on causality and one on voting for high schoolers. Products are evaluated by a field test network of 800 teachers and 146 schools. (CL)

The analytical approaches used to develop and evaluate policies at the water-use planning sites are intended to provide insight to decisionmakers and to help stakeholders structure their thinking and deliberations. These objectives are fundamentally different from those of evaluation approaches favored by many economists, which seek to provide a…

Following an 11-month period of study, planning, and pilot testing, a project was undertaken at Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC) to implement quality circles, i.e., small groups of employees doing similar work who voluntarily meet on a regular basis to set goals, identify and analyze problems, find solutions, and cooperate with management…

Recognition of the need to teach decision making skills led to the development of a program designed to improve high school students' career decision making skills. The research provided a process verification of a newly designed Mini Course based on Blau's model of occupational choice and the Jackson-Egner (J-E) Decision Making Model. Positive…

Based in part on a study at Towson State University, Maryland, retention was found to be linked to advising. In response to this defined linkage, a freshman advising program was developed which emphasized mandatory participation, increased faculty awareness of the complexities of advising, self-assessment, the merger of Academic Affairs with…

Effective participatory education programs are planned efforts designed to effect cognitive, social, and affective change. Although research does not yet permit unequivocal generalizations about effects, existing research is promising, especially when compared with research on effects of work experience per se. Positive effects include student,…

BRIDGE (Business Relating to Industry to Develop Gifted Education) was designed to bridge the gap between business, industry, and education via an internship program that would expose gifted and talented secondary school students to actual experiences which would increase their career awareness and knowledge of career opportunities. In addition,…

The System of Interactive Guidance and Information (SIGI) has been implemented at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) to study its effectiveness and utility with a hearing-impaired college population. SIGI is composed of six interrelated subsystems: values, location, comparing, predicting, planning, and strategy. Each subsystem…

The Jefferson County (Florida) Career Education Project was designed to meet the needs of this predominantly low-income, non-white community. The objectives were (1) to increase self-awareness and career awareness in grades K-5; (2) in grades 6-8 to increase self-awareness and career knowledge in the clusters of Agri-Business and Natural…

A problem solving course designed to expose the student to the wide range of alternative problem solving techniques and to enable the student to use these methods in practical applications was developed at the University of California at Los Angeles. The course also exposes the humanities student to objective tools such as numerical models, while…

The 10 papers in this report, selected from a series of 4 workshops, concern the planning of career and vocational education programs. The lead paper, by Corine Radice, gives the reader a perspective of a person working in a public high school trying to find help for students planning career decisions. The lead paper is followed by another on the…