Federal agencies use information dissemination programs as one of several tools to achieve various social or environmental goals. Evaluations of five federal information dissemination program cases were examined to assist agency efforts in evaluating and improving the effectiveness of such programs. These cases were: Environmental Protection…

The process of developing indicators, measures, and standards of program quality can be considered a tiered, four-step process consisting of the following: (1) identification of topic areas important to program quality; (2) establishing the indicators that reflect quality for each area; (3) determining measures of the indicators; and (4) setting a…

As a preliminary to developing criteria to meet quality control requirements of the National Literacy Act of 1991, a study examined federal and state development of measures of program quality and performance standards for programs funded under the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education…

It was the contention of the Head Start/State Preschool Program of the Greater Los Angeles Community Action Agency (GLACAA) that a self-evaluation would not be workable or effective unless it was a joint process involving delegate agency staff, parents and central administration staff in all phases. The first phase of the self evaluation process…

The Academic Libraries Survey (ALS) was established in 1966 to collect concise information on library resources, services, and expenditures for the entire population of academic libraries in the United States. The ALS is conducted every 2 years as a cooperative venture of the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Commerce, Bureau of…

Federal education officials last week pledged that the economic-stimulus program's $650 million innovation fund will reserve the largest grants for schools, districts, and nonprofit organizations that want to finance programs with proven track records and are ready to grow. In the U.S. Department of Education's first substantial preview of the…

In 1991-1992, the Montana state legislature's Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) Review Committee evaluated implementation of JTPA in Montana. The committee gathered background information on JTPA and state laws and programs implementing the federal programs and heard testimony on the plans and state job training programs. After 3 meetings, the…

This report explores educational accountability in the United States, specifically accountability in vocational education. Section 1 provides a brief overview of the history of evaluation activity in federal educational programs and sets the major accountability, evaluation, and performance provisions of the 1990 Perkins legislation in that…

The document presents an analysis of the progress in the research and development (R & D) efforts of the Department of Labor as embodied in the Manpower Development and Training Act, which combined an inquiry system and a mission-oriented operating system in a single agency. The analysis is presented in two parts. Part 1, The Manpower R &…

The feasibility of using performance indicators to improve the effectiveness of welfare-to-work programs was examined. First, previous and current experience with performance indicators for welfare-to-work and related programs (including the Job Training and Partnership Act and Job Opportunities and Basic Skills programs) was analyzed. Next, the…

In 2009 the Obama administration announced a focused commitment to turn around 5,000 of the United States' chronically lowest-performing public schools as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This commitment came with $3 billion in funding for the School Improvement Grant program, or SIG, along with new guidelines to ensure…

A recently initiated research program, designed to develop tests and other procedures for improving the selection of military personnel for language training, has attempted to amplify the traditional language aptitude requirement to include systematic non-cognitive measures of the prospective trainee's motivation. (Author/AF)

After more than a decade (and four years behind schedule) Congress finally seems ready to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. For years, critics have complained that the law's focus on test scores offers far too narrow a picture for judging school quality. There is also concern that the "adequate yearly progress," or…

This guide, which is based on a 12-month study that examined the feasibility of and procedures for evaluating federal, state, and local supported employment programs for individuals with severe disabilities, discusses recommended data items and measures and presents guidelines for developing a data collection strategy and implementation plan.…

Instructional strategies aimed at improving achievement of low performing student subgroups in need of support were selected by the District Improvement Advisory Committee, so that WCPSS could exit District Improvement status. Impact of each initiative, which often included teacher training and coaching is examined in this implementation report.…