After some 65 years of international development assistance, it is still difficult to show the effectiveness of aid in ways that are fully convincing. In part, this reflects inadequacies in the evaluation systems of the bilateral, multilateral, and global organizations that provide official development aid. Underlying these weaknesses often are a…

Each year a great many evaluations are conducted of international development efforts around the world. These development evaluations study projects, programs, country-wide portfolios, policy reform efforts, and other topics of interest to funders, governments, program managers, and other involved stakeholders. Although some of these evaluations…

The HEPS Tool for Schools provides ideas, guidelines and suggested techniques to help schools in their development of school policy on healthy eating and physical activity. There is growing evidence that a comprehensive whole school policy on healthy eating and physical activity can lead to better academic outcomes of pupils as well as promoting…

Today's undergraduates approach research with needs and expectations that challenge traditional library services. The foundation for leading an effective response is the ability to assess undergraduate needs and translate these needs into tangible strategic initiatives that contribute to student academic success. This paper describes the…

The "PISA 2009 Technical Report" describes the methodology underlying the PISA 2009 survey. It examines additional features related to the implementation of the project at a level of detail that allows researchers to understand and replicate its analyses. The reader will find a wealth of information on the test and sample design,…

This article describes the use of assessment in the design and implementation stages of launching online courses and programs. While use of assessment for improving student engagement in both face-to-face and online courses has been commonly used, the authors augmented the strategic planning of programs to include assessment as a tool for…

In both purpose and practice, general education in American higher education has experienced several recurring debates and national revivals. In a world with constantly evolving technology, students need a strong general education to be flexible and adaptable to the changes of the world. General education is an important component and requirement…

Knowledge about ecology and environmental education (EE) constitutes a basic tool for promoting a sustainable future, and was a target area of the BIOHEAD-Citizen Project. School textbooks were considered as representative sources of evidence in terms of ecology and environmental education, and were used for comparison among the countries…

Effective school discipline plans get to the root cause of student misconduct and specify expected behavior codes, values, and directives. Successful plans involve all stakeholders in their design, recognize parents as the first link to prevention, ensure access to professional development, celebrate students' positive contributions to the school…

A 5-year longitudinal study of factors affecting the implementation and operation of computer based education (CBE) projects in military settings using the PLATO system identified five major factors: project planning, staff selection and retention, lesson development, implementation and site management, and results and final evaluations. Findings…

The papers selected to provide this resource deal specifically with evaluations of the Teacher Corps as opposed to evaluation of issues and problems generally. The first paper does address concisely the current dialogue in the educational evaluation community, but its role in this publcation is secondary to discussion of evaluation activities in…

An effective administrator evaluation system builds in feedback opportunities, two-way communication, opportunities for improvement, enforcement of strengths, and a clear understanding of the system. The system must be valid, reliable, meaningful, useful, and feasible. Procedural answers to the why-what-when-where-what-who questions are discussed…

This paper examines the accomplishments of the Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) district research partners. Informed by 2 years of collaborative experience, the report documents the process McREL used in selecting partner sites and guides future field-based research partnerships by discussing problems encountered and…

Helps organizations determine if they are ready to begin a human resource planning program which requires the organization to analyze current and future personnel requirements, to develop an internal support system providing sound performance management programs, and to develop internal support systems for managing employee careers. (CT)

This evaluation guide is designed to assist local community college instructors, administrators, and other persons in the evaluation of their agricultural occupations program. The first of three sections provides an introduction and discusses (1) how standards benefit students, colleges, and the community; (2) how to prepare for a review of the…