Evaluating the impact of widening participation interventions can be challenging. This article discusses some of the difficulties in "attributing" change to complex widening participation interventions and suggests that the Theory of Change (ToC) approach can address some of these challenges by evidencing the "contribution"…

This article draws on findings from a national review of the evaluation of access and equity initiatives across Australian higher education to argue that utilising responsive mixed methods focused on the values of participants enables crucial understanding of what matters to the people involved. Based on the evidence collected, a "what…

A wide array of federal funding opportunities exists to help states build a secure infrastructure to support data use and ensure that students are prepared for college and careers. Because the reporting requirements for these programs are frequently developed without input from other programs and agencies, grantees are required to report data that…

Since 2002, the Center on Education Policy (CEP), an independent nonprofit organization, has been studying state high school exit examinations--tests students must pass to receive a high school diploma. This is CEP's ninth annual report on exit exams. The information in this report comes from several sources: CEP's survey of states that have…

This article describes the planning of a multi-agency and multi-stakeholder evaluation of the implementation of supportive housing. The Ottawa Housing"Plus" Collaborative Communities project is a collaboration between university-based evaluators and members of a local network of supportive housing providers. The objectives of the…

THE DIMENSIONS OF PROGRAM EVALUATION ARE OUTLINED, SOME NON-TEST METHODS WHICH CAN BE USED ARE DESCRIBED, AND THE IMPORTANCE OF MONITORING AND CONTROLLING THE INTERVENTION ARE STRESSED. THE IMPORTANCE OF TEAMWORK BETWEEN EVALUATORS AND INTERVENTIONISTS IS ILLUSTRATED AND THE VALUE OF SUCH AN APPROACH IN FURTHERING THE CLEAR CONCEPTUALIZATION AND…

This report presents results of a study of the effectiveness of the Comer Process, also known as the School Development Program (SDP) in the Milliken II Schools, Prince Georges County, Maryland. The process was introduced in the school system in summer 1985 to improve effectiveness of schools that could not be integrated because of their…

One part of a study of the difference that services under Title IIA of the National Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) make in the employment, earnings, and welfare receipt of adults and out-of-school youths served by the program focused on the following: recruiting sites, monitoring the implementation of the research design, and describing and…

The Parent/Child Toy-Library Program is described and a report is given of its evaluation. The program is a 10-week course for parents of three- and four year-old children, an educational Toy Library for the parents, and a training program for the teacher-librarians who will teach the course and operate the library. Two toys were rejected on the…

This book concerns the Mt. Druitt Early Childhood Project, which was developed to provide quality educational programs for disadvantaged children living in the western suburbs of Sydney, Australia. In order to set the subsequent discussion in broader perspective, chapter 1 addresses several key issues influencing project development. Chapter 2…

In Head Start, family service workers facilitate the process for guiding and assisting families in securing services needed for specific family issues regarding health care, housing, employment, education, and/or crisis management. These services were particularly important to families following Hurricane Charley and the subsequent recovery…

A benefit-cost analysis of the Job Corps program compared groups randomly assigned to either enroll in the program or to constitute a control group that did not enroll. Youth who participated in the study were those found eligible for Job Corps nationwide between November 1994 and February 1996. Interviews with participants and the assignment of…

A study involving random assignment of all youth eligible for Job Corps to either a Job Corps program or to a control group was conducted to assess the impact of Job Corps on key participant outcomes. Participants in the study were nationwide youth eligible for Job Corps who applied for enrollment for the first time between November 16, 1994, and…

The Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) was heralded as a major overhaul of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) program. Five years after passage of JTPA, the answer to the question of whether it has indeed managed to remedy CETA's shortcomings appears to be an unequivocal maybe. Although the JTPA has been praised by numerous…

This project assessed the impact of the Bureau of Vocational Education's Program for Disadvantaged Populations in Pennsylvania during the period 1979-1982. Data gathered from each funded project via a mailed questionnaire were both quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. In addition, on-site visits to 10 projects produced additional qualitative…