The purpose of this paper is to describe experiences evaluating the effectiveness of the Mathematicians and Education Reform (MER) Forum, a network of research mathematicians interested in educational issues. After a brief description of MER, three traditional evaluation models are considered to illustrate shortcomings found with using these…

The implications of the lessons learned through an evaluability assessment (EA) of the Title II Basic Skills Improvement Program (BSIP) for State Education Agency (SEA) support of model demonstration programs are discussed. The purposes, methodology and uses of the EA process are presented. Also included is a discussion of the details of the…

Homelessness is a troubling social problem, challenging to the best public and private efforts to provide some measure of remedy. For one group of the homeless, those with severe and persistent mental illness, that challenge is doubled: homelessness complicates the treatment of mental illness, even as mental illness complicates efforts to…

A plan has been initiated in Georgia to ensure that project directors and evaluators are cognizant of and organized to meet criteria specified in the Identification, Validation, and Dissemination (IVD) guidelines. The evaluation/validation process involves eight steps: (1) evaluator training, (2) proposal screening, (3) critique of evaluation…

The purpose of this paper is to review some of the methods used for the impact evaluation of Demonstrator-Developer projects and to promote the meta-analysis approach. Four examples of attempts to collect and analyze impact data from adopters are presented, one of which used the meta-analysis approach. In this example, each adopter collected pre…

A procedure was developed for on-site evaluation of replications of exemplary programs that emphasized the replication of the functions accomplished rather than the processes performed. Program functions are defined as operational purposes. A functional analysis begins with identifying program components; describing them fully; and then listing…

In 1989, the Technical Assistance for Special Populations Program (TASPP) developed a process to identify exemplary vocational education programs serving youth and adults with special needs. A national survey was conducted, with responses received from more than 350 professional vocational educators of special needs students in several states. In…

The School Attendance Demonstration Project (SADP) was designed to improve school attendance among teenagers receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) benefits in San Diego County, California. An impact study was conducted from March 10, 1996 to March 10, 1998, to evaluate the effects of providing social services and imposing…

The document presents the final report on Connecticut's pilot programs for students with learning disabilities. During 1984-86, the two programs were implemented at Housatonic Community College and the University of Connecticut. Evaluation activities are reported for each program site. Among evaluation results for Housatonic College were the…

Aimed at persons planning and implementing strategies for documenting school improvements, this paper is comprised of four sections. The first section distinguishes between national problems in education and federal issues in education (a distinction considered necessary for planning evaluations and establishing priorities for federally sponsored…

The accomplishments of the first year of project FOCUS, one of five national demonstration efforts funded under the Women's Educational Equity Act, are presented. There are four parts to the report. Part 1 gives an overview of the project. After conducting a needs assessment, the Tucson (Arizona) Unified School District undertook four central…

The National Sex Equity Demonstration Project (NSEDP) in the Broward County Schools, Florida, was created in 1979 to provide a demonstration of sex equity teaching. The two principal thrusts of the Project were to review materials to be used by regular teachers and to demonstrate how classrooms (and a whole district) could diminish discrimination…

Since 1988 five evaluations of Federal demonstration programs in education have been implemented that had random-assignment designs to measure program impacts. The implementation of two of these evaluations, the evaluation of the School Dropout Demonstration Assistance Program and that of the Alternative Schools Random Assignment Program, are…

Described is the Preschool for Gifted-Handicapped in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a 3-year demonstration program for children (3 to 6 years old) who exhibit unusual gifts or talents in spite of physical, mental, emotional, or experiential handicaps. Sections cover four goals of the program: assessment, curriculum, community and parent involvement,…

This paper examines educational environments that promote learning and explores the ways that such environments produce differentially positive results. It is based on a study that investigated the effects of a theoretically based social-constructivist approach to education, in contrast to the more classroom-based "abstract" instruction used in…