There has been increasing concern about the accountability of federal programs in complying with laws and regulations and in achieving desired results. At the request of Congress, the Government Accounting Office examined how the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ensures Head Start accountability. Data were collected by means of…

Healthy Start is a 5-year program that encourages community-based strategies for reducing infant mortality. This report addresses Congressional concerns of preliminary evaluation results reported by the press concerning the program's efficacy. The report strives to answer three Congressional concerns: (1) the plan for the national program…

This report to the Legislature and Governor provides recommendations on the design of a workable structure for the annual evaluation of district-level performance for California Community College districts. Under contract with the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office, a six-member panel of the Research and Planning Group for…

This report provides information on the following: (1) the percentage of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) households receiving food stamp benefits, both nationally and by state; and (2) some of the reasons why the AFDC households in some states may not have higher food stamp participation rates. In fiscal year 1986, 83.4 percent of…

This document provides statements presented at the oversight hearing on testing and assessment evaluation to improve learning in the nation's schools. Walter Haney summarizes the National Commission on Testing and Public Policy's recent report, which concluded that while well-designed and responsibly used assessment is an important source of…

The effectiveness of bilingual bicultural education as a means of increasing the opportunities of language minority students is examined in this report, which is addressed to educators and the general public. First, an introduction defines key terms, briefly outlines controversies which surround bilingual education, and describes the contents of…

The utility of the proposed Program Evaluation Standards to educational practitioners, and the adequacy of some of the standards in addressing issues in evaluation in culturally and linguistically educational environments are discussed, drawing on the author's experience as Director of the Evaluation Assistance Center East in Arlington (Virginia).…

Third in a series of reports on Minnesota's Technology Demonstration Program, this document provides a synthesis of previous findings, presents a critique of the technology program, and evaluates 15 demonstration sites which were chosen to serve as models for the uses of technology in instruction and management. The report is divided into three…

The General Accounting Office (GAO) reviewed the performance measurement system of the Department of Labor's (DOL's) Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS), which administers programs and activities designed to help veterans obtain employment and training assistance. The GAO review focused on the following items: VETS' proposed…

A 3-year national assessment of vocational education (VE) examined various issues related to improvement of VE programs, their academic and employment outcomes, participation of special population students in VE, and Perkins funding and administration. The assessment established that most secondary VE is still very traditional and that Perkins…