In 2016, the federal government proposed and adopted the Every Student Succeeds Act, which retracted the federal government's prior control over states' teacher evaluation systems, permitting more local control. Kevin Close, Audrey Amrein-Beardsley, and Clarin Collins collected information from states to determine the degree to which states were…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to present alternative views on the theory and practice of "formative assessment" (FA), or assessment to support teaching and learning in classrooms, with the purpose of highlighting its value in education and informing discussions on educational assessment policy. Methodology/approach: The method…

Educators in the Chula Vista Elementary School District determined what kind of instruction students needed through a "response to intervention" (RTI) process, which provides extra help to struggling students with an aim of reducing the number of referrals to special education. As RTI catches on throughout the country, the district is on…

Based on experiences of the American Institutes for Research in conducting evaluability assessment (EA), common problems include: finding client programs, balancing standardization and flexibility needs, satisfying two clients, maintaining schedules, and demise of client programs. Their successes include: surmounting bureaucratic complications,…

Part of a forum on a Federal offices' search for a strategy to gain better evaluation utilization, this paper discusses the strategy's conception. Three categories of educational evaluations, defined by social and structural characteristics of the program environment, are identified: (1) trial evaluations, whose funding is not guaranteed beyond…

This report summarizes the twelfth survey of states by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) at the University of Minnesota. Results are presented for all 50 states and 8 of the 11 unique states. The purpose of this report is to provide a snapshot of the new initiatives, trends, accomplishments, and emerging issues during this…

An overview of the methods and problems in evaluating employment and training programs is presented. Process and impact evaluation are compared in relation to the Job Training Partnership Act. (Author/LMO)

The effects of a multi-phased assessment on the management and modification of Federal special education programs and policy is discussed. The purposes and methodology of the three-part assessment procedures (evaluability assessment, rapid feedback assessment, and the performance monitoring system) are presented. This is followed by a description…

Rather than automatically presuming explicit conditions exist when designing an evaluation to fit the summative or formative mold, evaluators should think of an evaluation design as fitting between endpoints on an evaluation process continuum. Evaluators can blend techniques from both the formative and summative evaluation, matching actual program…

Process evaluation has great potential to meet the needs of managers who are charged with operating employment and training programs under the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). One adaptation of process evaluation could make use of a personal computer to enhance the cost-effectiveness and quick turn-around time of this method of assessing the…

This report focuses on the School Action Effectiveness Study (SAES), the national evaluation of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention's Alternative Education Program. It presents the history, start-up activities, successes, and problems encountered during the first year of the 17 action projects. In the first section, the…

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)

Methodologies for evaluating/documenting partnership programs are analyzed and options for evaluating/documenting OERI's Educational Partnerships Program (EPP) are proposed. The EPP supports alliances between public schools and/or higher education and the private sector to encourage excellence in education. This paper reflects…

The goal of the East Texas State University Elementary Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title VII Bilingual Education Project was to improve the education of limited, and non-English speaking, students in North Texas area schools. This was accomplished by training undergraduate bilingual teachers, in-service teachers (masters program),…

Building and evaluating artifacts specifically for K-12 education, technologists committed to design sciences are needed along with an approach to evaluation increasing the systemic transfer from research and development into school settings. The authors describe THE VIRTUAL LAB scanning electronic microscope simulation, including (a) its…