Two studies replicated and refined a program for evaluating and improving residential treatment services during group leisure periods in living units for persons with severe developmental disabilities. Results indicated that provision of leisure materials and interaction with clients decreased maladaptive client behavior. The monitoring system…

This article draws on experience from Delaware FIRST, a model demonstration project utilizing family assessment for overall project evaluation and program planning for parents and professionals. Instrument selection processes, administration procedures, families's reactions to the process, and usefulness of family assessments in project evaluation…

An eclectic approach is presented for the evaluation of services to the homeless. The method combines social network analysis and multiattribute technology to allow for development of a criterion for evaluation of services for a geographic area. Service delivery configuration, evaluation criteria, and a planning and monitoring strategy are…

A study found the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) Family-Centeredness Rating Scale was effective in evaluating 100 IFSPs from four different agencies. The highest rated items were identifying the family's role and writing in the active voice. More child-related goals were written compared to family-related goals. (Author/CR)

Review states that two well-known evaluators have assembled a collection of essays on emerging issues in evaluation. These include global political perspectives, qualitative and quantitative research, the relationship between auditing and evaluation, performance assessment, international evaluation, and methodological issues. (SLD)

Explores relationships between evaluators and those who participate in community-based programs, focusing on the Communities That Care (CTC) program in Britain. Discusses different community perspectives toward evaluation, highlighting challenges created for evaluators. Provides examples to identify CTC evaluation strategies, showing the…

Professional development practices implemented in rural school systems have often led nowhere. These practices seem to produce adult learning activities with few results other than participants' mounting frustration and another innovation left by the wayside. To encourage the development of productive professional development, many studies are…

Each year for the past 25 years, the Center for Gifted Education at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock conducts a three-week summer enrichment program for gifted and talented students entitled Summer Laureate/University for Youth. The program was developed to provide a practicum experience for teachers seeking either licensure or a master's…

This brief discusses the signs and symptoms of alcohol and drug use and provides recommendations to assess substance use among youth in your program. It is not uncommon for adolescents to experiment with different substances such as alcohol or cigarettes, but this can lead to heavy and continued use, which is dangerous and may put their health at…

Since implementing NCLB (No Child Left Behind), raising of test scores and making AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) have been paramount in the schools and the search has been on to find "THE" answer in the schools' quest to attain these goals. When hunting for appropriate methods to reach these objectives, needs assessments are often…

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the effects of two trainings designed to increase the competencies of professionals to develop high quality positive behavior support plans for students that engage in problem behaviors that interfere with theirs and/or others' ability to learn. Training one consisted of training attendees on six key…

While the current debate in the evaluation community has concentrated on examining and explicating implications of the choice of methods for evaluating federal programs, the authors of this paper address the challenges faced by the government in the selection of funding mechanisms for supporting program evaluation efforts. The choice of funding…

This article, written by Fiona Hallett, pathway leader for the inclusion and special educational needs masters programmes at Edge Hill University, Graham Hallett, senior lecturer for special educational needs and inclusion at the University of Cumbria, and Mary McAteer, programme leader for an M level professional development programme at Edge…

Programs that serve underrepresented minority students have long faced many challenges. Prior to the late 1970s, higher education institutions reserved academic program slots for underrepresented minority students because these students had limited access to opportunities that afforded them credentials that their white counterparts could more…

School-university partnerships are not uni-dimensional projects. Success in these partnerships can be found in loosely-coupled systems such as client-server partnerships and in more tightly-coupled systems such as collaborative development centers. Using a comparative case study approach, we explore two school-university partnership case studies…