This article presents a view of barriers to effective gifted program evaluation resulting from ineffective tools for measuring growth in gifted students and the human barriers confounding the evaluation process. The role of advocacy in the design, implementation, and utilization of evaluation studies is examined. Long held beliefs and biases…

Recommendations are made to Congress and the Department of Education on evaluation of federally supported education programs. The work covers local, state, and federal efforts to address questions about evaluation procedures and practices, and the use of evaluation results. The recommendations are directed toward improving the quality and…

Summarizes a report from Northwestern University that reviewed Federal evaluation practices of federally supported educational programs at the national, state, and local levels. Considers: (1) evaluation purposes and methods; (2) evaluators' capabilities; (3) use of evaluation results; and (4) ways that evaluation procedures/practices can be…

Beginning in 1970, the Cincinnati Public Schools experienced a shift in emphasis from centralized evaluation to local school program development and evaluation. Three functional models currently operate to evaluate three programs: Title I, alternative integration, and disadvantaged students. Each is distinguished by the level of trust existing…

This document contains a proposal for a district-wide multicultural high school curriculum for the Belleville Public Schools, Edison (New Jersey). The curriculum is designed to promote student bonding for peace and harmony by focusing on the total school environment and raising student, parent and staff consciousness about the many different…

Describes evaluation experiences in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, School District. Suggests that use of evaluation results can be maximized through a systems approach that involves developing and monitoring different performance indicators, and tailoring educational practice by focusing corrective action on areas where performance is found to be…

Individual standardized test scores in major school subjects can be combined to evaluate school programs and systems. Recently, Sweden experimented with such a practice. Test scores in different subjects (Swedish, English, mathematics) were gathered, units of different size (schools, municipalities, regions) were compared, and inter-school…

The changing nature of technical assistance activities and evaluation for compensatory education programs was discussed. The emphasis is on the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act (ECIA) Chapter 1 Technical Assistance Centers (TAC) and their clients. Improvement of school practices demands that the technical assistance process be developed…

The Saginaw Successful Schools Project (S3P) was described and evaluated using data collected from 1980 to 1985. S3P is a school improvement project based on instructional and school effectiveness research findings; but the starting point for change is determined by staff in each of the 31 school buildings. The School Improvement Survey (SIS) was…

Summaries are presented of all research and evaluation work conducted by the Austin Independent School District during the 1977-78 school year. Summaries are divided into the following areas: 1978 at a glance; district priorities; basic skills achievement; systemwide achievement profiles; low socioeconomic status (SES) achievement; professional…

Periods of executive change provide an ideal time for the development of planning efforts for public school systems and for self-examination of the system's strengths, weaknesses, and long-range needs. In the anonymous school system under study, the new superintendent's application of general systems theory to school district management entailed a…