Positive development models shift focus for intervention from avoiding problems, deficits, or psychopathology to promoting skills, assets, and psychological well-being as the critical interests in development and intervention. The field can be characterized as multiple parallel lines of empirical inquiry from four frameworks: Social Competence,…

Since the first child care Quality Rating System (QRS) was implemented in Oklahoma 11 years ago (in 1998), 16 additional statewide systems have been launched and numerous states are piloting or developing a QRS (Zaslow, Tout, & Martinez-Beck, forthcoming). As QRS stakeholders across the nation look ahead to the next decade, it is important to take…

The handbook for vocational rehabilitation is the result of an effort to review the literature on program evaluation, organize it, and reduce it to usable form. Taking the position that the purposes of program evaluation are to determine what are the best programs and why, to suggest ways to strengthen existing programs, and to suggest new ways to…

Practical guidelines for implementing course evaluation systems are suggested. A model to conceptualize course evaluations in the context of the professor's decision-making framework is developed with focus centering upon the allocation of time between teaching and research. Costs and benefits associated with collecting evaluations are considered.…

Evaluation for accountability has become a significant part of federal funding guidelines. However, local project resources and needs, and, more recently, federal insight, suggests that the evaluation functions are most successfully carried out with the cooperation and active involvement of the local project staff. Under a contract to the District…

Describes how two methodologies for analyzing and improving performance--performance engineering and organization mapping--were used in a case study involving the purchasing department of an electric utility. Highlights include the establishment of a model of the desired results, measuring existing performance, and the designing of an improvement…

Six areas of staff development program evaluation in which participants may be meaningfully involved are: (1) clarification of the program's goals; (2) development of a design for the evaluation study; (3) development of methods for measurement; (4) analysis of information; (5) response to evaluation instruments; and (6) reporting on an evaluation…

This handbook, designed as a guide for new evaluators in the Pittsburgh Public Schools, provides an orientation to the "Discrepancy Evaluation Model" and a detailed outline of the administrative procedures necessary to conduct day-to-day activities in the first two stages of program evaluation. Guidelines for use during the first stage of…

The major objective of this study is to identify a methodology that will help educators in marketing to efficiently manage the design, impact, and cost of case studies. It is my intention is to examine the impact of case study characteristics in relation to the degree of learner involvement in the learning process. The author proposes that…