This practical resource draws on the best of neuroscience to inform decisionmaking about digital learning. We live in unprecedented times that have pushed schools to make many decisions that have been postponed for years. For the first time since the inception of public education, teachers have been invited to redesign the learning landscape by…

The purpose of the "Drivers Best Practices Assessment" ("DBPA") is to assist organizations in assessing their current supports and resources for quality use of selected programs or practices. Specifically, organizations can use it to: (1) Identify strengths and opportunities for improvement in their current supports and…

The purpose of this article is to discuss major substantive errors that school personnel may make when developing students' Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). School IEP team members need to understand the importance of the procedural and substantive requirements of the IEP, have an awareness of the five serious substantive errors that IEP…

Many professionals in the early childhood field are inspired by community-driven initiatives that hold great promise for transforming outcomes for the youngest children and their families. However, most collective impact efforts are mobilized in large urban areas, where early childhood professionals and civic leaders take the lead. New Mexico has…

Developmental evaluation (DE) offers a powerful approach to monitoring and supporting social innovations by working in partnership with program decision makers. In this book, eminent authority shows how to conduct evaluations within a DE framework. Patton draws on insights about complex dynamic systems, uncertainty, nonlinearity, and emergence. He…

The "emerging educational institutional decision-making matrix" is developed to allow educational institutions to adopt a rigorous and consistent methodology of determining which of the myriad of emerging educational technologies will be the most compelling for the institution, particularly ensuring that it is the educational or pedagogical but…

Planning, implementing, and assessing a service-learning project can be a complex task because service-learning projects often involve multiple constituencies and aim to meet both the needs of service providers and community partners. In this article, Stufflebeam's Context, Input, Process, and Product (CIPP) evaluation model is recommended as a…

Performance-based teacher education (PBTE) is a promising new approach to the pre- and inservice training of teachers. The program develops performance skills generally evaluated using process and product measures rather than traditional verbal measures. There are four major factors in the organization of a PBTE design: (1) research, (2)…

The Multiattribute Utility Model combines subjective goal definition with objective data analysis. Goals are defined, ranked, and weighted. Subjective opinions about their attainment are assigned against decision alternatives considered by the school. Bayesian analysis of data enables revision of prior opinions about the realization of goals…

Judgment based assessment (JBA) in early childhood special education is discussed in its theoretical context and noted are three trends: (1) the widening of JBA to include emotional characteristics and developmental processes; (2) inclusion of such informants as peers and persons with disabilities; and (3) development of new methods for eliciting…

Typical characteristics of program reviews, illustrations of to whom the reviews relate in a university setting, and conditions and expectations that may enhance the use of the results of program reviews are described in this report. It is argued that program reviews do not serve all levels of a university equally; the primary beneficiaries of the…

A model for the evaluation of educational products is being applied in the evaluation of the Educational Cooperative Development Program of the Appalachia Educational Laboratory. The Laboratory is conducting a three-year field test of a regional organizational management structure to increase the problem solving capabilities of school…

The essential phases in the planning function in voluntary organizations are presented in this book. Part I contains four chapters that outline each component of a planning system, which are decision making, planning functions, and research, and illustrate how these components are put into practice. Part II details each step of the planning…

Program Level Planning, a model based upon decentralized decision making, is proposed as a method to move the planning process to the university's operational level. After describing the characteristics and steps of Program Level Planning, the problems in shifting the decision making to the local level are considered, along with the application of…

This article presents a series of decision trees to help in planning assessment and intervention with handicapped children between three months and five years of age. A series of assessment questions lead to suggestions for intervention. Steps in using the decision trees are given and a case example presented. (Author/DB)