In seeking to improve student outcomes, governments may choose to exercise direct control over schools, as in many centralised systems, or to provide frameworks for intermediate bodies to engage in improvement activities. One such body is the National College for School Leadership (NCSL), now the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL)…

One of the biggest challenges that states and local intermediaries face in setting up and scaling high-quality youth apprenticeships is gathering relevant, accurate and actionable data. High-quality data is an essential ingredient for a strong youth apprenticeship program because it equips state and local leaders to evaluate impact, monitor…

The State Family Outcomes Measurement System Framework (S-FOMS) is a framework originally developed by the Early Childhood Outcomes (ECO) Center that identifies seven key components of a high-quality family outcomes measurement system at the state level. This document contains background information about the framework's seven components, 15…

The State Family Outcomes Measurement System Framework (S-FOMS) is a framework originally developed by the Early Childhood Outcomes Center that identifies seven key components of a high-quality family outcomes measurement system at the state level. The seven components are: (1) Purpose; (2) Data collection and transmission; (3) Analysis; (4)…

Recognizing the need for evidence to inform policies, strategies, and programs to care for vulnerable children, the U.S. Government convened an Evidence Summit on Protecting Children Outside of Family Care on December 12-13, 2011, in Washington, DC, USA. This paper summarizes the background and methods for the acquisition and evaluation of the…

Purpose: The rapidly evolving nature of agricultural innovation processes in low-income countries requires agricultural extension agencies to transform the classical roles that previously supported linear information dissemination and adoption of innovation. In Bangladesh, strengthening agricultural innovation calls for facilitation of interactive…

The schools' inspection regime in England has shifted in recent decades from a focus on external assessment of practice to a scrutiny of external data and schools' self-evaluation, culminating in a normative system based on self-surveillance by school senior managers. This model of inspection (characteristic of the performative approach to public…

Research on student achievement indicates the U.S. K-12 education system is not adequately preparing American students to compete in the 21st century global economy in the areas of science and mathematics. Congress has asked the scientific entities of the federal government to help increase K-12 science learning by creating standards-based…

The legal question of the scope of administrative authority Congress has actually conferred upon the Commissioner of Education in the listing of accrediting agencies of institutions of higher education is addressed. To ensure that its tax monies would not be paying for substandard education, but to avoid controlling education, the government,…

Results are presented of a study on the economic development efforts of ten rural community action agencies (CAAs). This report describes the role played by the various CAAs in the economic development of their communities: the problems faced by the different agencies, the program approaches tried and how these approaches were developed, what the…

Outlines the major intergovernmental and interorganizational challenges associated with doing program evaluation in today's environment and offers recommendations designed to improve evaluation efforts. (SLD)

The history of the U.S. Office of Education's (OE) relationship with private accrediting agencies is traced. "Criteria for Nationally Recognized Accrediting Agencies and Associations" have been used to determine which accrediting agencies and associations are reliable authorities for identifying the quality of training offered by…

This descriptive and evaluative report documents four Title IV-funded agencies that deal with racial desegregation services: specifically, the General Assistance Centers, the State Educational Agencies, the Training Institutes, and the Local Education Agencies. The study is based on a statistical analysis of responses to mail questionnaires from…

The closing of the Program Evaluation and Methodology Division of the U.S. General Accounting Office marks the end of an era of innovative and important evaluation work. The loss of leadership with the retirement of E. Chelimsky contributed to the decline in the division's fortunes which was brought about by budget constraints. (SLD)

This paper introduces some recent changes by the current administration that are increasing the visibility of program evaluation in Washington and then describes some concerns raised by this new attention. The paper also suggests ways that evaluators can assist federal decision makers in using evaluation results wisely. Over the past decade,…