This timely book presents a data-driven approach to preventing and responding to school violence. As school violence receives increasing attention across the nation, the application of scientific knowledge is critical. For maximum effectiveness, transdisciplinary teams should use school data, logic models, and theories of change to design,…

In an effort to promote learning in classrooms, political science instructors are increasingly turning to interactive teaching strategies--experiments, simulations, etc.--that supplement traditional lecture formats. In this article, I advocate the use of student-generated data as a powerful teaching tool that can be used in a variety of ways to…

Since 2010, the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) has periodically administered the "Strong Foundations" survey, which documents the content, structure, and effective use of state postsecondary student unit record systems (PSURSs). This report highlights the results of the fourth administration of the survey,…

In this commentary, we examine Braverman's insights into the trade-offs between feasibility and rigor in evaluation measures and reject his assessment of the trade-off as a zero-sum game. We, argue that feasibility and policy salience are, like reliability and validity, intrinsic to the definition of a good measure. To reduce the tension between…

Cities around the country are building systems that seek to make the most of public and private resources to provide widespread, high-quality, out-of-school time opportunities. Local officials are leading these efforts because participation in OST programs not only benefits young people but also the cities in which they live, with the potential to…

This paper discusses a role group sharing meeting held July 30-31, 1979 in Windsor, Connecticut, and attended by documentors and evaluators. Examined, in documentation form, are issues and learnings from the sharing meeting and an analysis of the design of the meeting, which was a pilot for other network role group meetings anticipated during the…

The rising demand for accountability has had a great influence on the design and use of management information systems. The purposes of accountability, needs assessment, and program evaluation would be well served if a set of indlcators could include information about the outcomes of higher education. (MLW)

Reviews the information-gathering and record-keeping methods used at Milwaukee Area Technical College and explains the usefulness of such data in maintaining accountability, improving instructional quality, and planning for the future. (SK)

Although most school districts and schools are routinely involved in data collection, they do not typically use the data they collect in a systematic fashion to identify strengths and weaknesses and develop improvement strategies. One reason for the lack of data use is the perception that the data are being collected for someone else's purposes.…

Evaluability assessment is a descriptive and analytic process intended to produce a reasoned basis for proceeding with an evaluation of use to both management and policymakers. It was jointly developed by the members of the program evaluation group of the Urban Institute between 1968 and 1978. The approach begins by obtaining management's…

Diversion projects in California (Los Angeles and Orange Counties) were monitored using client tracking, a simple and basic evaluation procedure. Client tracking was used to provide information about three points in the diversion process: referral to the project, service delivery, and the outcome of the diversion services. The data provided an…

A study examined the types of outcomes that are currently measured in postsecondary vocational education and the uses to which data on institutional, program, and student outcomes are being put. Personnel from 54 of the 63 two-year institutions in 25 states that were originally contacted were interviewed. The respondents represented institutions…

A basis is provided for judging the adequacy of evaluation plans or evaluation designs in this document. It is assumed that using the procedures suggested to determine the adequacy of evaluation designs in advance of actually conducting evaluations will lead to better evaluation designs, better evaluations, and more useful evaluative information.…

Evaluation within human service organizations is defined in terms of accepted evaluation criteria, with reasonable expectations shown and structured into a model of systematic evaluation practice. The evaluation criteria of program effort, performance, adequacy, efficiency and process mechanisms are discussed, along with measurement information…

Methods of identifying effective special education practices are analyzed to help practitioners identify and adopt such practices. The contents of this guide include a flowchart for effective practice identification (EPI), an analysis of decision-making steps in this process, and two examples of identification procedures. The decision-making steps…