Restorative justice (RJ) is an alternative approach to school discipline that has been gaining recognition in the public and academic spheres as a way to engage students who misbehave in school. RJ has promise to address racial/ethnic, gender, and disability disproportionality in school discipline. One aspect of school-based RJ that has received…

Co-existing with wildlife and maintaining rural livelihoods are common challenges in remote villages in Japan. The authors assess the effects of the Monkey-Persimmon Environmental Education Program developed to reduce wildlife conflicts and to revitalize a community in Nagano Prefecture. Development of a logic model helped guide interviews with…

One strategy for addressing the persistent challenge of advancing empirically based social work practice is to engage practitioners in the formulation of empirically developed practice guidelines. Although this approach is promising, there has been relatively little work to guide practitioners, and perhaps consequently, few examples of…

Conflict of interest refers to a set of conditions in which professional judgment concerning the validity of research might be influenced by a secondary competing interest. The competing interest that has received most attention in the literature addressing the prevalence and effects of such conflicts on the practice of empirical research has been…

The bulk of this conference report is made up of three papers. In the first, J. A. Riffel argues that there are two polar orientations to the problem of evaluation in education--the independent empirical and the participatory problem-solving. To date, education has been dominated by the former approach. Only the latter allows for a variety of…

The major potentials and pitfalls of adversary evaluation in education are discussed. Reasons why the courtroom model may have limited utility, and the difficulties in the debate model are identified. It is argued that the existence of opposing viewpoints is the core of adversary evaluation, not adherence to existing formats for presenting…

A problem, endemic to program evaluation, centering around the inability of evaluations to produce meaningful information, is outlined. A general strategy to be utilized in responding to the problem, the ethnographic approach, is presented. The discussion of an ethnographic evaluation model focuses upon: the role of the participant observer,…

The authors present an overview of recent developments and ultimate goals in quality of care assessment, with special reference to the nurse practitioner. A proposed evaluation model is included. (Author)

The professional and personal biases of an evaluation team at Cornell University were found to interfere with the assessment of an interdisciplinary, team taught, problem oriented curriculum in International Studies. An account was given of the hiring of the evaluators, evaluator role ambiguity, evaluator professional clashes, facilitation of…

Practical suggestions to an evaluator are presented. It is seen as essential that an evaluator who would influence decision making through research realize that the research in which he engages, the data collected, and the analysis and interpretation are influenced by the values of the institution that the evaluator serves. (MLW)

Describes a comprehensive school-based conflict-resolution approach designed by two school-based social workers and implemented in an "alternative" urban high school over a two-year period. Results indicate that a more cooperative atmosphere developed in the school as a result of the program and that the program was effective in reducing both…

In 1965, the California legislature created a new Vocational Educational delivery system entitled "Regional Occupational Centers and Programs." Discusses the effects of that legislation and its unanticipated consequences. Also discusses some other career education models. (Author/RK)

A sample of 459 American Evaluation Association members was surveyed about ethical challenges they encountered in evaluation work. Respondents report a wide variety of ethical conflicts, with evaluators frequently pressured to compromise their roles as scientists and the evaluation product. A framework is proposed for interpreting these findings.…

The eight articles of this issue examine the nature of differences that arise between qualitative and quantitative researchers in program evaluation in terms of goals and epistemologies. The origins of these differences and their consequences are explored. Authors represent both perspectives but do not defend their ideological turfs. (SLD)

Alcoholism among Chicanos is principally due to structural deficiencies in the surrounding society. The frustrations and limitations brought on by the social structure constitute the principal cause of Chicano alcoholism. These include the major causative factors of poverty, racism and acculturation. In an attempt to address the problem of…