The Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) national evaluation seeks to assess both the implementation process and the results of the SS/HS initiative, exploring factors that have contributed to or detracted from grantee success. Each site is required to forge partnerships with representatives from education, mental health, juvenile justice, and…

A three-level growth-curve model was applied to estimate perceived impact growth trajectories, using multi-year data from project and school surveys on outcome and program implementation collected from 59 sites and approximately 1165 participating schools in the Safe Schools and Healthy Students Initiative. Primary interest is to determine whether…

The Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) Initiative offers a unique opportunity to conduct large-scale, multisite, multilevel program evaluation in the context of a federal environment that places many requirements and constraints on how the grants are conducted and managed. Federal programs stress performance-based outcomes, valid and reliable…

The Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) Initiative has awarded over $2 billion in grants to more than 350 school districts in partnership with local mental health, law enforcement, and juvenile justice agencies. To estimate the impact of grantee characteristics, grant operations, and near-term outcomes in reducing violence and substance use,…

The purposes of this study were to evaluate a federal and state-funded Family Caregiver Support Program (FCSP) and explore what types of caregiver support service are associated with what caregiver outcomes. Information was obtained on a sample of 164 caregivers' use of eleven different types of support service. Descriptive and comparative…

This paper presents a mixed-method approach to measuring the functioning of Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) Initiative partnerships. The SS/HS national evaluation team developed a survey to collect partners' perceptions of functioning within SS/HS partnerships. Average partnership functioning scores were used to rank each site from lowest to…

Site visits are used extensively in a variety of settings within the evaluation community. They are especially common in making summative value decisions about the quality and worth of research programs/centers. However, there has been little empirical research and guidance about how to appropriately conduct evaluative site visits of research…

As the number of large federal programs increases, so, too, does the need for a more complete understanding of how to conduct evaluations of such complex programs. The research literature has documented the benefits of stakeholder participation in smaller-scale program evaluations. However, given the scope and diversity of projects in multi-site…

Some of the major issues related to planning evaluations of federal human services national demonstration programs are discussed. Barriers to conducting evaluations are discussed for the policy level and cross-site and within-site evaluation contexts. Among the proposed solutions is the use of an explicit programmatic developmental sequence. (SLD)

This paper describes the conduct and the results of an evaluability assessment of the Adult Education Program, PL 91-230. It presents the findings on the intended program, the actual program, the plausibility of the objectives, the measurement of the objectives, and the program evaluability and options for improvement. (Author/LMO)

Program evaluation as a methodology is discussed, and its application to government export promotion programs is examined. Because the variety of approaches to export program evaluation, resulting data are often of limited usefulness. A programmatic approach to program evaluation is proposed. (TJH)

Describes an approach to introducing performance measurement into a large federal health program, the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act, in response to the government Performance and Results Act. Also discusses characteristics of the HIV/AIDS epidemic that present unique challenges for performance measurement. (SLD)

This two-year study is a field network evaluation of the operation of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) Program in 20 randomly selected states and 40 Service Delivery Areas within those states. Methodology is also discussed. (Author/LMO)

Issues that program planners should consider in developing performance standards for the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) older worker programs (OWPs) are reviewed. Using goal-setting theory and the results of a two-year evaluation of OWPs in Texas, the discussion covers approaches to developing standards for programs other states. (TJH)

Application of evaluability assessment by the Cooperative Extension Service of the Department of Agriculture is reviewed. The effort involved five states with six major programs since 1984. Underlying philosophy and methodological considerations are discussed, and background information is provided on the assessment processes and studies…