Increasing demands for accountability in educational programming have resulted in increasing calls for program evaluation in educational organizations. Many organizations include conducting program evaluations as part of the job responsibilities of program staff. Cooperative Extension is a complex organization offering non-formal educational…

Blending high-quality and rigorous research with pure evaluation practice can often be best accomplished through thoughtful collaboration. The evaluation of a high school drug prevention program (All Stars Senior) is an example of how perceived competing purposes and methodologies can coexist to investigate formative and summative outcome…

Environmental education organizations can do more to either institute evaluation or improve the quality of their evaluation. In an effort to help evaluators bridge the gap between the potential for high quality evaluation systems to improve environmental education, and the low level of evaluation in actual practice, we reviewed recent…

Evaluation capacity building (ECB) is seldom mentioned in the environmental education (EE) literature, but as demonstrated by the lack and poor quality of EE evaluations, is much needed. This article focuses on an online course, Applied Environmental Education Program Evaluation (AEEPE), which provides nonformal educators with an understanding of…

Conducted a formative evaluation of an osteoporosis prevention health education program using several methods, including questionnaires completed by 256 women, and then compared formative evaluation results to those of a summative evaluation focusing on the same target group. Results show the usefulness of formative evaluation for strengthening…

An overview of the evaluation strategies being used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to monitor and improve a broad national program of HIV prevention among youth in school is presented, emphasizing surveillance of risk behaviors, health outcomes, and school-related policies and programs. (SLD)

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)

Procedures and benefits of a modular approach developed to evaluate the Texas Nutrition Education and Training Program are illustrated. It is shown that meta-analysis and similar summarizing methods create a comprehensive evaluation to improve operations and support planning and development. (SLD)

Evaluation and strategic management are related in that each attempts to improve the quality of policy decisions and each has evolved from a product-centered focus to one in which implementation and utilization are vital. Evaluators should understand strategic management theory to evaluate its applications appropriately. (SLD)

The purpose of evaluation in education projects is explored, through examples from English Language Teaching aid projects in developing countries. The distinction between formative and summative evaluation is conceptualized in terms of purpose rather than temporality, and the role of evaluation in program improvement is stressed. (SLD)

The case for an in-depth evaluation of many federal education programs is argued, particularly those providing site-specific information capable of informing program improvement. The reauthorization of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) offers an opportunity for the U.S. Department of Education to play a leadership role in…