The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) evaluates research studies that look at the effectiveness of education programs, products, practices, and policies, which the WWC calls "interventions." Many studies of education interventions make claims about impacts on students' outcomes. Some studies have designs that enable readers to make causal…

Contemporary management thinking embraces the organizational training theory that sustainable success rests, to a great extent, upon a systematic evaluation of training interventions. However, the evidence indicates that few organizations take adequate steps to assess and analyse the quality and outcomes of their training. The authors seek to…

This presentation guide consists of transparency masters displaying nine Florida indicators of program quality for adult education programs. Evaluation criteria related to the following indicators of program quality are detailed: educational gains, educational outcomes, retention, recruitment, program orientation, program planning and evaluation,…

Defines productivity as the ratio of outputs to inputs. Describes ways of using productivity measures in comparing instructional approaches, program implementations, and longitudinal trends. Offers cautions about potential misinterpretations of productivity comparisons, using a hypothetical analysis of the productivity of four specific…

As presented, goal attainment scaling involves devising a set of goals with involved persons, assigning weights to these goals, developing a set of expected outcomes for each goal, scoring the outcomes, and calculating a summary score of the outcomes across the goals. (Author/DLS)

Discusses four approaches to assessing the quality of early childhood program: top-down, which focuses on the adult's view of setting, equipment, and the program; bottom-up, focusing on children's experience; outside-inside, emphasizing the family's view; and societal, in which agencies and communities assess programs. (LB)

Compliance with policy mandates and instructional complexity are unique aspects of special education for which peer review, applied research, and qualitative/naturalistic methods used for evaluating general education are inadequate. A conceptual map designed to organize longitudinal, systematic evaluation of special education addresses its special…

Nine recommended guidelines for teacher performance appraisal are offered as a basis for evaluating an appraisal system. Guidelines, involving a reward system, evaluation training, teacher involvement, classroom improvement, peer observation, alternative-data collection, paperwork, and supervisors, emphasize the positive qualities of teacher…

Program providers who do not give refunds should reconsider their policies. Training providers should give all attendees the opportunity to express dissatisfaction, follow up on all complaints immediately and personally, and allow dissatisfied attendees to receive full or partial refunds or attend another session or program without additional…

Suggestions for effectively evaluating a campus communications program are offered in a model for judging the institution's commitment, progress in program implementation, and user impact. (JMF)

This manual is designed to help rural Chapter 1 program staff effectively run their programs. Upon reviewing the history of the Chapter 1 legislation and program, the document stresses program design, evaluation, and improvement as three easy ways to understanding the Chapter 1 program. Program design should determine the district eligibility for…

Written for local, State, and Federal vocational educators, this publication discusses the feasibility of implementing recommendations from some recent evaluations of educational excellence. Criteria for estimating the appropriateness of evaluation findings are given, and recommendations are offered for creating an infrastructure among local,…

In a question-and-answer format, the assistant vice president for development and director of alumni relations at Carnegie Mellon University (Pennsylvania) discusses how alumni directors can gauge their programs' effectiveness, how his institution addresses the issue, and how a Council for Advancement and Support of Education project to develop…

The Education Consolidation and Improvement Act (ECIA) Chapter 2 Evaluation Unit provides program evaluation and evaluation technical services for designated ECIA Chapter 2 projects in the District of Columbia Public Schools. This report examines the status of inputs, processes, and outcomes, intended and observed, of the Evaluation Unit during…

Describes and evaluates the various strategies employed by the Microelectronics Education Programme to provide training in computer-based learning to teachers in the United Kingdom. Suggestions for future strategies that focus on the child, the teacher, and the class are presented. (14 references) (CLB)