Although graduate academic institutions implement diverse annual review processes, their overall intent is focused on ensuring continuous improvement of program quality (National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment, 2020). Through program review processes, university leaders (e.g., department chairs, program leads) analyze student…

Post-secondary institutions are required to complete a variety of quality assurance activities including external program review, a process of inviting external reviewers from outside the institution to provide constructive feedback on all aspects of an academic program. While external program reviews have been completed for decades, there has…

After-school and summer programs provide important opportunities for youth to learn STEM practices and form STEM-related identities. However, there has been limited coordination across these programs to measure effectiveness toward learning outcomes. To better understand the constructs that are used to evaluate these programs, we searched key…

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to analyze a First Grade Summer Jumpstart program after the first year of implementation to evaluate the effectiveness of the program to positively impact academic achievement in reading and math for first grade students. In order to achieve this overall objective, the following research questions framed…

In 2010, as the result of a congressionally mandated study, the National Research Council (NRC) published the report "Preparing Teachers: Building Evidence for Sound Policy" (NRC, 2010). Reflecting the unprecedented attention to teacher quality that had emerged internationally in response to the exigencies of the "global knowledge…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe a novel undergraduate course on serious game design and development that integrates both game and instructional design, thus providing an effective approach to teaching serious game design and development. Very little effort has been dedicated to the teaching of proper serious game design and…

The Success By 6® (SB6) initiative is designed to support early care and education centers in improving and sustaining quality in Pennsylvania's Keystone STARS Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS). This SB6 evaluation report examines implementation and outcomes. The findings have implications for SB6 continous quality improvement process…

The Success By 6® (SB6) initiative is designed to support early care and education centers in improving and sustaining quality in Pennsylvania's Keystone STARS Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS). The SB6 evaluation report examines implementation and outcomes. The findings have implications for SB6 continous quality improvement process…

In this paper we share our reflections, as evaluators, on an evaluation where we encountered Excessive Evaluation Anxiety (XEA). The signs of XEA which we discerned were particularly evident amongst the program head and staff who were part of a new training program. We present our insights on the evaluation process and its difficulties, as well as…

Purpose: In the higher education sector, the evaluation of learning and teaching projects is assuming a role as a quality and accountability indicator. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how learning and teaching project evaluation is approached and critiques alignment between evaluation theory and practice. Design/Methodology/Approach:…

States, programs, and schools have long focused on the inputs of teacher preparation--the rules for candidates and the preparation programs they attend--because inputs were thought to predict teacher effectiveness, and because they were often the best option available. But in the early 2000s, policymakers began trying to evaluate preparation…

This document provides guidance about how to describe studies and report their findings in a way that is clear, complete, and transparent. This document does not include information about how studies are judged against What Works Clearinghouse evidence standards. For information about What Works Clearinghouse evidence standards, please refer to…

The continuously growing demand for program results has produced an increased need for evaluation capacity building (ECB). The "Integrative ECB Model" was developed to integrate concepts from existing ECB theory literature and to structure a synthesis of the empirical ECB literature. The study used a broad-based research synthesis method with…

The Assessment Skills and Knowledge (ASK) standards seek to articulate the areas of content knowledge, skill and dispositions that student affairs professionals need in order to perform as practitioner-scholars to assess the degree to which students are mastering the learning and development outcomes the professionals intend. Consistent with…

The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology that allows higher education institutions (HEIs) to promote, to evaluate and to report on sustainability. The ultimate goal of the afore-mentioned methodology is to help HEIs achieve sustainability. First, a model entitled Sustainability in Higher Education Institutions (SusHEI) that generally…