The purpose of this paper is to argue that the measurement of child outcomes is the major stumbling block in estimating the extent to which equality of opportunity exists for children in our nation's schools. This paper has three parts. The introduction discusses the concept of equal educational opportunity, as defined and then redefined over the…

The document presents guidelines for planning, implementing, and documenting training effectiveness evaluations. The guidelines are intended to assist researchers in coping with many of the constraints associated with executing empirical research in operational settings. (NTIS)

The Illinois Course Evaluation Questionnaire (CEQ) is an instrument used to collect student attitudes towards a course. Its purpose is to enable faculty members to collect evaluative information about their traching. The data are collected and processed by section but may also be processed by course, department, college, etc. The student responses…

Several problems that an evaluator of an experimental college has to face and resolve are considered. These include: (1) the purpose of the evaluation and the role of the evaluator, (2) the utility of a research design model, (3) the specificity of program goals before the evaluation is planned, and (4) the appropriateness of standardized or local…

This was developed in collaboration with the White Bear Lake Senior High School Evaluation Committee to evaluate the school's flexible module scheduling program. It includes a questionnaire about the school and its program and a questionnaire form for interviews in the community. Part I of the high school questionnaire has 25 questions about the…

A major theme of this volume is the issue of library accountability and evaluation of productivity. Four review papers deal directly with the topic. The first reviews the literature relating to evaluation of libraries generally with an emphasis on school libraries. The second focuses on the measurement of productivity in the academic library. It…

The Head Start data analyzed by Magidson (1977) were reanalyzed using Joreskog's (1976) LISREL computer program methodology. The hypothesis that the Head Start program produced zero effects on the cognitive abilities of its participants was evaluated by several Chi Square tests. In all cases, the null hypothesis could not be rejected. (Author/CTM)

In a reply to the previous article (TM 503 435), Magidson disparages the arbitrary application of the .05 significance level to these data, responds to several assertions, and provides additional data in support of his original article showing positive effects for Project Head Start. (CTM)

The study examined the effectiveness of an instructional child abuse prevention instruction program by staging a situation in which each child (N=44) had the opportunity to leave the school with a stranger. Self esteem before instruction and knowledge/attitude scores after instruction were found to be predictive of a reduction in vulnerability.…

Recent evaluations of manpower training claim that: (1) nonexperimental methods produce unreliable estimates of program impacts and (2) randomized experiments are necessary for reliability. National Supported Work Demonstration data are used to reexamine nonexperimental estimates of net program impact on posttraining earnings of high school…

Two studies used experimental data to evaluate nonexperimental methods of program evaluation for employment and training programs. Results of both studies indicated that the nonexperimental methods might not accurately replicate the experimental estimates. Also, new methods for constructing comparison groups yielded little improvement over…

Estimates of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act's net impact on participant earnings, using Continuous Longitudinal Manpower Survey data, were compared to a similar sample from the Current Population Survey. The use of multivariate matching and weighting yielded acceptable results. (GDC)

Examines the impact of program design on the development of research-based practice models. The concept of program design is reduced to elements that can be examined for their reliability, validity, relevance, and internal consistency. (Author/RWB)

Classroom observation techniques and needs assessment strategies can be used to evaluate gifted program inservice and staff development for teachers. Inservice program length, quality, and type can be evaluated through use of pre and post inservice observation, comparison of inservice participants with nonparticipants, and assessment of changes in…

This study addresses four issues in the evaluation of nutrition education programs: (1) the reliability of knowledge, belief, and behavior scales; (2) the effectiveness of programs targeted to the general public; (3) the longitudinal effects of nutrition education interventions; and (4) the relationship between changes in the cognitive, belief,…