In an effort to help make products safer and to reduce product-related injuries, the Consumer Product Safety Commission relies heavily on consumer participation. To establish regulations, it utilizes the following: (1) an "Offeror" regulation whereby groups can offer to manage the safety standards development process; (2) a consumer…

Studies of the use of ethnography as an evaluation tool in large-scale contract research studies were reviewed before data collection and design decisions were finalized in response to a Request for Proposal (RFP). Five tasks had to be accomplished before data collection could begin: study sites were selected, a system for data collection was…

Federal statistics form the foundation and are the standard for private statistics. Reliable and accurate statistics are increasingly used in complex models of the economy and society that have become important tools for management of large business concerns and for policy planning in governmental bodies. Reductions in government funding threaten…

The evaluation of federal programs such as the migrant education program causes a dilemma for state education agencies. The law places the prime responsibility for establishing, and accounting for, quality programs on state and local education agencies. However, no explicit directive requires that this be done in a uniform manner. A lack of…

Design and implementation of a curriculum evaluation plan for the vocational education program (occupational education under the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Act) of a large correctional system are described. An outside evaluator assisted in designing and conducting the first year's evaluation. The 1991-92 curriculum used was…

Preliminary findings of this research effort provide support for the hypothesis that existing databases maintained by federal agencies for administrative or monitoring purposes can serve as useful data sources in special education policy research. The research explored the relationships among a number of state-level special education, fiscal, and…

With the growing interest in comparing student achievement state by state, there is a need to develop better techniques for making such comparisons. Approaches available now, particularly the use of Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and American College Test (ACT) scores, have obvious shortcomings but nonetheless continue to be prominent because…

The Consumer Information Center is a federal program which encourages federal agencies to develop and release consumer information to the public. It also promotes consumer awareness and access to information through the "Consumer Information Catalog" and a mail order distribution operation. Through research, the Center can learn the…

The National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS) is a federally supported longitudinal study of a national sample of some 23,000 young people first surveyed as high school seniors in the spring of 1972. The historical precedents of such a study include the work of Friend and Haggert in a Boston settlement house, Louis…

A management information system model was designed to provide data for planning, directing, and evaluating programs for the National Origin Minority Education (NOME) office of the New Hampshire Department of Education. NOME is federally funded to provide training to local school district and community members regarding the educational needs of…

The advent of the Information Age brings the means and tools to improve education through the use of technology. In order to assist educators in kindergarten through grade 12 and in higher education with the development of technological programs, the federal government has made the implementation of technology a primary initiative. There will be a…

Results of the National Center for Education Statistics' (NCES) evaluation of its collection of data for the Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS) are examined. Concerns regarding accuracy, timeliness, and uses of HEGIS data collection are addressed. To review the literature of higher education and publications concerned with some…

Passage of the Education Amendments of 1974 added a new section to Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, which required the U.S. Commissioner of Education to undertake specific activities regarding evaluation of the program. Efforts made by the Office of Education to implement this law are described, including the…

Establishment of the federal-state Employment Service system created a need for a standardized occupational language to ensure uniform matching of workers with jobs. The Occupational Analysis Research Program was initiated to gather a broad base of detailed occupational information. Although the organizational structure of all editions of the…

The movement toward integration of qualitative and quantitative research methods within the same study has been most evident in social policy research. Four major approaches to integrating can be identified in recent studies. The sequential, the parallel, and the fused models have been rather widely used. The interactive model, developed during…