Program evaluation can play a critical role in supporting high quality implementation of social programs to help them achieve their goal of social impact. Evaluation scholars have developed a wide range of strategies to help build programs' internal evaluation capacity in an effort to support meaningful use of evaluation. However, the evaluation…

The evaluation of second language programs is an educational task with profound potential for improving pedagogical practice. Evaluators who educate perform more than just a "service" function by helping people to learn, develop themselves, and refine their abilities to work more effectively. (CB)

A good formative evaluator, who helps programs become as effective as possible, behaves remarkably like a good personal coach. Nine ways in which a formative evaluator can help a program manager are listed, and implications for practicing evaluators and the evaluation profession are detailed. (SLD)

An evaluation system which would describe and assess statewide services for preschool children is described. Component theory conceptualizes the unit of analysis for evaluation as the component. This approach increases the generalizability and utilization of evaluations and enhances the ability to evaluate several programs at the state level.…

Teacher educators of the Instructional Leadership Program at the University of Vermont used interactive evaluation procedures (including numerical, process, and summative approaches) to inform their decisions about program improvement through a new training option for regular and special education leaders. (CB)

The purpose of evaluation in education projects is explored, through examples from English Language Teaching aid projects in developing countries. The distinction between formative and summative evaluation is conceptualized in terms of purpose rather than temporality, and the role of evaluation in program improvement is stressed. (SLD)

This information package offers guidelines on conducting program evaluations to improve services. Though the examples relate specifically to respite care services for families of individuals with disabilities, the information is more generally applicable. In the first of four factsheets, titled "Local Program Evaluation," the form of evaluation…

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…

A well-planned and well-conducted evaluation can provide useful information to funding agencies, sponsoring institutions, instructors, and participants. Evaluating an instructional program, such as a workshop or institute, involves collecting, organizing, analyzing, and reporting data about several features of the program and its impact on the…

Revision of the Bachelor of Education program at the University of Alberta (Canada) and results of an initial formative evaluation of one program component--students' first school placement--are described. Program revisions based on continual student and teacher feedback obtained from ongoing formative evaluation enabled positive program…

The research and development (R&D) projects funded by the Florida Division of Vocational Education are intended to have utility for vocational educators in their efforts to improve vocational education programs and practices. This project was conducted to determine why some R&D products are accepted by potential users while others are not…