The Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) national evaluation seeks to assess both the implementation process and the results of the SS/HS initiative, exploring factors that have contributed to or detracted from grantee success. Each site is required to forge partnerships with representatives from education, mental health, juvenile justice, and…

Although the Delphi is widely used, research on certain methodological issues is somewhat limited. After a brief introduction to the strengths, limitations, and methodological challenges of the technique, we share our experiences (as well as problems encountered) with an electronic Delphi of educational program evaluation (EPE) in the Asia-Pacific…

Twelve specific suggestions for evaluators concerning development, presentation, and followup of improved evaluation recommendations are discussed. Offering effective recommendations requires special skills that need to be recognized, studied carefully, and passed along to practitioners and students. (TJH)

It is difficult to apply benefit cost analysis to human service programs. This paper explains "threshold benefit analysis," the derivation of the minimum dollar value which the benefits must attain in order for their value to equal the intervention costs. The method is applied to a mobility training program. (BS)

Reviews the state of the art in performance measures and assessment processes in program evaluation before the passage of the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), and discusses difficulties in fitting these practices into the GPRA format. Presents a simple logic model for evaluating research programs. (SLD)

The impact of a newly instituted prime vendor (wholesaler) pharmaceutical system at Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals was studied at 33 VA centers and 32 matched comparison hospitals. Results indicate satisfaction with the new system and illustrate the solutions to some interesting evaluation problems. (SLD)

This article shows how microcomputer software can help in overcoming key methological problems in program/policy evaluation by: (1) paired comparisons; (2) sensitivity analysis to deal with missing information; (3) allocation percentages to deal with multiple alternatives; (4) sub-optimizing to deal with conflicting constraints; and (5) decision…

Twelve articles discuss the advantages of theory-driven evaluation for: (1) identifying crucial issues; (2) integrating program implementation into evaluation; (3) diagnosing problems in program studies; (4) diagnosing problems in program structures; and (5) enhancing evaluation utilization. Topics include optimizing validity in program and…

Challenges encountered in developing and maintaining an extensive evaluation program at Ohio State University are retrospectively reconstructed. The setting, the history of program development, and the nature of the program are described as a backdrop for discussion of six issues with implications for program development. (SLD)

The rationale for a multistage approach to evaluating services demonstration programs is discussed. The approach takes into account limitations that are often found in such programs. The National Evaluation of Models for Linking Drug Abuse Treatment and Primary Care provides an example. (SLD)

Use-oriented approaches to evaluation have been challenged by contentions that the responsiveness of such evaluations undermines their technical quality. This discussion analyzes purported conflicts between these evaluation criteria of utility and accuracy by examining underlying assumptions related to evaluation's purpose and politics. (TJH)

Discusses methodological issues that emerged in evaluating a three-year paternal involvement demonstration project for poor inner-city noncustodial fathers. The dilemmas that arose from the contradictory goals of program evaluation and the need to meet federal and state waiver goals are discussed, and the tradeoffs needed to ensure a meaningful…

Explores implications for evaluation practice of using five different perspectives on organizations, drawing on the four models of social program implementation developed by R. F. Elmore (1978). It is argued that evaluation will only really be effective when its focus, methods, and management reflect realistic assumptions about how organizations…

Methods of using simplified time series analysis (STSA) in evaluating clinical programs are discussed. STSA assists in addressing problems of attrition/augmentation of subjects in programs with changing populations. Combining individually calculated "C" statistics in a simple aggregate analysis of restraint usage by nursing home staff…

Some of the major issues related to planning evaluations of federal human services national demonstration programs are discussed. Barriers to conducting evaluations are discussed for the policy level and cross-site and within-site evaluation contexts. Among the proposed solutions is the use of an explicit programmatic developmental sequence. (SLD)