In a 2012 paper for the Center for American Progress, "The State of Evaluation Reform," Patrick McGuinn (Drew University) identified the opportunities and challenges facing education agencies in Race to the Top (RTTT) grant-winning states as they prepared for the implementation of new teacher evaluation systems. The 2012 study undertook…

This case study of one middle school focuses on improving teachers' skills in data-driven decision making through analysis of student work and their own professional practice. The expectation that schools will make adequate yearly progress has pushed evaluation practice down to the teacher level, where teachers are asked to analyze and…

The purpose of this publication on agency training evaluation practices is to share approaches used by federal agencies to assess needs and measure training effectiveness. Emphasis is placed on the process of evaluation. Names of the agencies and highlights of the examples used by each follow: (1) Plant Protection and Quarantine (Department of…

Results of evaluation research studies, even those that are meticulously designed and carefully executed, often are not implemented. This article examines some of the critical factors that mediate between the carrying out of evaluation research and the utilization of findings. To illustrate these factors, two case studies are analyzed. (Author/EGS)

The Experience Based Career Education (EDCE) program serves as a focal point of a cast study documenting how the National Institute of Education secured Office of Education funds to demonstrate an R&D innovation. Serious questions are raised about the regulations-writing process and the use of evaluation information. (Author/LC)

Critiquing the stakeholder idea, the author states: if government chooses to take account of competing views in social program evaluation, it can get a better result if it encourages the competing views to find a voice of their own, not to speak through the government's chosen instrument. (Author/PN)

Stakeholder evaluation was designed to address widely recognized problems in the conduct of evaluation. However, global propositions about the problems and prospects of program evaluation obscure the circumstances in which social science can contribute to social problem solving. (Author/PN)

The purpose of this document is to share various approaches used by federal agencies to assess needs and measure training effectiveness. The emphasis in the descriptions is on the evaluation process rather than on the results. One program was evaluated by employing return-on-investment (ROI) data and using volunteer line personnel who conducted…

A study was conducted to review local Title VII evaluation and improvement practices, focusing on local Transitional Bilingual Education and Special Alternative Projects. This final report summarizes the findings of the study, and includes a separate report on 18 case studies of evaluation systems of local Title VII grantees. The study reviewed…