We examine whether the El Dorado Promise, a guaranteed college scholarship program for students in the El Dorado School District (EDSD), affected elementary and middle school achievement using a quasi-experimental matching design. We first match the EDSD with similar districts to create a pool of potential comparison students then match students…

This study explores the extent to which differences in research design explain variation in Head Start program impacts. We employ meta-analytic techniques to predict effect sizes for cognitive and achievement outcomes as a function of the type and rigor of research design, quality and type of outcome measure, activity level of control group, and…

This article examines the power analyses for the first wave of group-randomized trials funded by the Institute of Education Sciences. Specifically, it assesses the precision and technical accuracy of the studies. The authors identified the appropriate experimental design and estimated the minimum detectable standardized effect size (MDES) for each…

This article describes an independent assessment of the Fast ForWord Language computer-based training program developed by Scientific Learning Corporation. Previous laboratory research involving children with language-based learning impairments showed strong effects on their abilities to recognize brief and fast sequences of nonspeech and speech…

The educational evaluation utilization of 47 Title IV-C projects in Minnesota funded in FYs 1975 and 1976 is examined. Findings suggest that these evaluations have had an impact, not only at the project level, but also in contributing to the validation of exemplary projects for wider dissemination. (RL)

A design for evaluation studies of educational programs should provide valid and defensible inferences. Goals of evaluation are the identity of major components of inferences and specific validity concerns. Design problems may be resolved by creatively utilizing features of specific evaluations in designing unique conditions that permit valid…

This paper presents a case for the use of causal models derived from a substantive knowledge base of theory and research in the evaluation of educational programs. An evaluation of the Adaptive Learning Environments Model (ALEM) illustrates the causal-modeling approach to program evaluation. (BW)

Data from the Sustaining Effects Study were used to investigate the impact of attrition. Four types of analyses were conducted: estimation of attrition rate by project, estimation of bias by project, prediction of bias at the project level, and estimation of bias associated with alternative aggregation procedures. Effects of attrition varied with…

Selected issues relevant to evaluating women's studies programs (WSPs) are discussed. Focus is on criticisms of traditional forms of assessment expressed by feminists and nontraditional evaluators, illuminative evaluation as an alternative approach to assessing WSPs, and a new model of evaluation termed "participatory evaluation." (TJH)

The Multiattribute Utility Model combines subjective goal definition with objective data analysis. Goals are defined, ranked, and weighted. Subjective opinions about their attainment are assigned against decision alternatives considered by the school. Bayesian analysis of data enables revision of prior opinions about the realization of goals…

A mixed-method conceptual framework was developed from the literature and refined through an analysis of 57 empirical mixed-method evaluations. Five purposes for mixed-method evaluation are identified (triangulation, complementarity, development, initiation, and expansion) and analyzed using the framework of 7 design characteristics. (TJH)

The Assistant Superintendent for Research, Planning, and Evaluation for Detroit Public Schools discusses his views on: (1) urban education; (2) federal, state, and local initiatives for urban educational improvement; (3) urban educational research; (4) the link between instruction and educational evaluation; and (5) circumstances associated with…

Objectives of Title I evaluations are to document: (1) use by local staff and parents; (2) other types of information used by local staff and parents in judging and in improving their program; and (3) implications of these findings for the current Federal Title I evaluation strategy. (Author/RL)

Chelimsky's five-part continuum--a model for the practice of evaluation in a political context--is reviewed. The model's conceptual framework and a question for education are discussed. By focusing on interactions between evaluators and policy actors, this model should prompt debates about unsettled issues in education policy making. (SLD)

After a discussion of the underutilization of cost analysis in education, this article offers several explanations for the relative scarcity of cost-based evaluations in education and considers the potential for greater use of such studies. Developing frameworks to unpack costs may be a way of bringing about greater use of cost-based evaluation.…