Networks aiming for fundamental changes bring together a variety of actors who are part and parcel of a problematic context. These system innovation projects need to be accompanied by a monitoring and evaluation approach that supports and maintains reflexivity to be able to deal with uncertainties and conflicts while challenging current practices…

The authors assign semester- or quarter-long team-based projects in several Computer Science and Finance courses. This paper reports on our experience in designing, managing, and evaluating such projects. In particular, we discuss the effects of team size and of various peer evaluation schemes on team performance and student learning. We report…

Status quo approaches to teacher evaluation have recently come under increasing criticism. They typically assign most teachers the highest available score, provide minimal feedback for improvement, and have little connection with student achievement growth and the quality of instruction that leads to higher student growth. A more comprehensive…

The seven articles in this edition show that cost-benefit analysis is emerging from the confusion of the 1980s and is probably going to become the central tool of program evaluation in the future. The modern approach involves incorporating probability distributions into the cost-benefit analysis. None of the articles are specifically…

As our society moves increasingly from an era of affluence to one of scarcity, the evaluation and assessment of publicly supported services will become even more crucial and necessary to ensure that public resources are being expended in the most effective manner. Evaluation of library service effectiveness is defined in this paper in terms of…

Education is too complex, multidimensional, and poorly understood to lend itself to a single cost/effectiveness criterion. Rather, analysts in the educational field seek to rank alternatives by their effectiveness, report separately on the cost implications, and leave the tradeoffs to the decisionmaker's judgment. In this context, a program is any…

A Quality Assurance Program (QAP) developed at the College of St. Francis is presented that is based on an open systems approach. The model allows an institution to continually monitor, evaluate, and, when necessary, modify its academic programs, graduates or undergraduate, traditionally or non-traditionally delivered, to assure quality. Part I…

A cost-effectiveness/benefit analysis is defined as a technique for measuring the outputs of existing and new programs in relation to their specified program objectives, against the costs of those programs. In terms of its specific use, the technique is conceptualized as a systems analysis method, an evaluation method, and a planning tool for…

Describes the comparative approach to system evaluation used in a project which administered an online retrieval test to an experimental online catalog to produce data for evaluating effectiveness of a new subject access design. Discusses efforts used to ensure data reliability, and strategies the researchers can use to improve on the data…

This manual is basically designed as a self-instructional guide by which postsecondary vocational administrators and educators can conduct cost-effectiveness/benefit studies. (Cost-effectiveness/benefit analysis is an evaluation technique which can be used for assessing outcomes of existing and/or new programs in relation to their specified…

Presented is a report of a joint study project of an aerospace company and California's Office of Compensatory Education. The project's goals were to (1) explore the impact of facets of compensatory education on some neighborhood problems; (2) offer a communication link between school personnel and the Office of Compensatory Education; (3) use a…

A computerized model was developed to evaluate local vocational education programs in relation to the various functions of vocational education. A data base was generated using the local school districts' information and the output was designed for local self-evaluation use in further planning and review of the overall vocational education plan.…

For libraries to succeed, a clear understanding of what services are in demand is necessary. The SWOT analysis technique for evaluating an organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats is examined, and barriers to effective diagnosis are discussed. (AEF)

This report presents results of the management reviews of 20 California high school vocational systems which utilized the District Review of Vocational Education (DROVE) process, a consultant-directed self-study that also involves a vertification study conducted by a visiting team made up of nonvocational educators. (Results of the topical…

This summary of the 1973-74 Michigan Cost-Effectiveness Study describes the results of an exploratory inquiry into compensatory education reading programs in forty-eight Michigan schools. The study is said to have as its purpose the development and implementation of evaluation techniques to determine what educational practices bring about changes…