Substance use among youth remains a major public health and safety concern. One fundamental way to address youth substance use prevention is to keep young people on a positive trajectory by engaging them in positive activities from early years of their childhood. In this article, the author offers a best practice analysis of systematic review…

Describes the scope of evaluation efforts of the Even Start family literacy program to date, summarizing the evaluation strategies, rationale, intended audience, and findings. Discusses the different lenses offered by evaluation at state and local levels. (SLD)

The assertion that evaluation has become institutionalized at state and local levels to a much greater degree than is commonly understood is supported by a discussion of trends in evaluation. Evidence is presented that evaluation plays an increasingly important informational role as the level of evaluation becomes more local. (SLD)

The proposed activities of the Office of Research and Evaluation of the Austin (Texas) Independent School District in 1990-91 are outlined. Evaluations and other major projects focus on: (1) externally funded projects; (2) systemwide achievement testing; and (3) systemwide evaluation. Twelve evaluations will assess the impact of programs and…

This paper summarizes the results of a study of the local consequences of implementing statewide minimum competency tests. For American education to be the best in the world, the use of statewide and nationwide standardized testing as a primary policy tool for stimulating reform must be discontinued. Second, school district responses to such…

This paper presents a set of general observations about state-sponsored school improvement initiatives with data from several sources. One major source is the Research for Better Schools, Inc., Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), implementation study, "Facing the Challenge: Selected Programs and Practices of the Urban Initiative's Operation School…

An overview of an international conference held on the campus of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) to take stock of the development and use of educational quality indicator systems at the local, state, national, and international levels is provided. Major implications and findings of the education summit held at the University of…