In a budget note in HB 5016 (2015), the Oregon Legislature directed the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) to report back to the Legislature prior to March 1, 2016 on its efforts to provide direction, and if necessary, training to staff from school districts and education service districts for reporting graduation data. This note also asked…

This paper reviews evaluations of social programs and major approaches to program evaluation. Its purpose is to examine the roles that philosophy, ideology, key audiences, preferred methods, and typical evaluation questions can play in the practices of contemporary evaluators. The report describes the Learning Connections Projects, a program that…

Findings of a study that evaluated the Spencerport, New York, "More Effective Schools/Teaching Project" and examined the project's validation process are presented in this paper. The program model was based on change at the individual school level, administrator/staff collegiality, comprehensive interventions based on school culture, and…

Four influential studies on school effectiveness reported by Brookover and Lezotte (1979), Edmonds and Frederiksen (1979), Phi Delta Kappa (1980), and Rutter and others (1979) are limited in their usefulness as recipes for creating effective schools by the following four issues: (1) The four studies differ in their definition of what…

An overview of accountability in public education is presented in this publication. Contents include a review of recent accountability efforts, an outline of a comprehensive accountability model, an analysis of accountability strategies, and a discussion of means for incorporating system indicators into the larger systemic framework. A conclusion…

This paper reports the status of the Profile of School Excellence (PRO-S/E) after three years use and the results of a second validation study. The PRO-S/E, used in over 20 school districts in six states, is a diagnostic system school districts use to determine strengths and weaknesses based on 11 characteristics of effective schools. Data is…

Since 1982-83, Spencerport Central School District (New York) has conducted a project to improve the educational program and student learning in each building of the district. This report provides a comprehensive overview of the project, focusing on five elementary schools. The project's goal for each building is that at least 95 percent of all…