The focus of this paper is to share thinking about meta-level evaluation of action research (AR), and to introduce indicator domains for assessing and measuring inputs, outputs and outcomes. Meta-level and multi-site evaluation has been rare in AR beyond project implementation and participant satisfaction. The paper is the first of several…

In order to ascertain which school characteristics can explain the differences in effectiveness between schools, important methodological choices have to be made in school effectiveness research. One of these choices relates to the criterion or criteria the researcher wishes to use to compare schools. Should, for example, a school be deemed…

I define a treatment effect in terms of a comparison of outcomes and provide a typology of all possible comparisons that can be used to estimate treatment effects, including comparisons that are relatively unknown in both the literature and practice. I then assess the relative merit, worth, and value of all possible comparisons based on the…

Key stakeholders who implement Supported Education may find themselves asking two questions: (1) Has Supported Education been implemented as planned?; and (2) Has Supported Education resulted in the expected outcomes? Asking these two questions and using the answers to help improve Supported Education are critical for ensuring the success of one's…

Girls' delinquency has attracted the attention of federal, state, and local policymakers for more than a decade as girls have increasingly become involved in the juvenile justice system. For example, from 1995 through 2005, delinquency caseloads for girls in juvenile justice courts nationwide increased 15 percent while boys' caseloads decreased by…

The Institute for Work, Skills and Training was assigned to evaluate a labor market program aimed at the integration of long-term unemployed individuals aged 50 or older. The integration should have been achieved not only by training and coaching of individuals, but also by building regional networks between labor market stakeholders within a…

Empowerment evaluation entered the evaluation lexicon in 1993. Since that time, it has attracted many adherents, as well as vocal detractors. A prominent issue in the debates on empowerment evaluation concerns the extent to which empowerment evaluation can be readily distinguished from other approaches to evaluation that share with it an emphasis…

Outlines six criteria that should be met in designing studies to investigate effectiveness of treatment programs for suicide patients: (1) random assignment of patients; (2) follow-up of 80% of subjects; (3) need for statistically significant, clinically important results; (4) reporting of all clinically relevant outcomes; (5) adequate description…

This concluding chapter reviews some of the methodological issues that analysts need to consider when evaluating the success of character-development programs.

The thesis of this paper is that, in evaluating most innovative educational projects that are conducted in schools, tenets of formal experimental design and associated inferential data analysis methods should be given limited emphasis. The basis of this thesis lies in the problems and difficulties that undermine the design and implementation of…

Evaluation is crucial for writing centers. Given increasingly tight budgets, writing centers should conduct more sophisticated evaluations. Writing centers should turn to educational program evaluation and select general types of evaluation most appropriate for writing centers, and, congruent with the appropriate types, writing centers should…

In 1985 the Arizona Legislature established a 5-year Career Ladder Program for teachers. The purpose of the pilot is to determine if student academic achievement is enhanced through recognizing and developing high levels of teacher performance and through a "promotion system based on comptence". The overall research and evaluation…

A progmatic model consisting of four dimensions for identifying components to be evaluated in various instructional programs is described. In the first dimension, major categories of any instructional program are identified: (1) appropriateness; (2) history; (3) objectives; (4) methodology; (5) evaluation procedures and (6) effectiveness.…

Examines the Abt Associates, Inc. findings on the effectiveness of Project Follow Through and disputes the report's conclusion that so-called "basic skills" approaches to the schooling of poor children are superior to other methods. (Author)

This publication contains a model which is a framework for evaluation of secondary vocational education effectiveness at the school, district, regional, and state level in Oregon. The model can also be used to obtain information on the characteristics of students enrolled in vocational education and of those who choose not to take vocational…