Many of the first-wave reform initiatives of the 1980s have been successfully implemented on a widespread basis and are having an important influence on the schooling process. The reform movement was expected to fail because of strong financial, political, and organizational arguments. Reform initiatives were said to be insufficiently funded,…

A study conducted in a State university's Department of Vocational Education discovered that years of work experience had little positive effect on academic performance; also, younger baccalaureate students with less work experience completed programs more quickly than certificate holders, yet did as well on the overall occupational competency…

This paper provides an overview of instructional evaluation in higher education with a special emphasis upon student evaluation of teaching. The paper includes an examination of the context for evaluation, components of evaluation, and research on student evaluation of instruction, and it proposes a series of recommendations for the implementation…

While self-pacing may appear to be an ideal solution to problems stemming from individual differences in academic skill levels among college students, students in Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) courses may tend to procrastinate. Three course contingencies were studied for their effectiveness in reducing student procrastination and…

Academic library members of the Southeastern Library Network (SOLINET) responded to a computer library network effectiveness questionnaire to determine the extent to which actual network performance, as perceived by users, is consistent with expected performance. The study evaluated the technological system in terms of outputs and implications for…

This manual is designed to provide an overview of a Behavior Analysis Follow Through classroom management system known as "contracting." Behavior Analysis Follow Through was designed to meet the educational needs of low-income students in the kindergarten through third grade and was validated as an effective and exemplary educational…

An analysis of the assessment results and general findings of a statewide assessment in reading conducted in Hawaii in 1975 is presented in this report. Chapters provide a perspective on the assessment program, the preparation of the statewide assessment, the methodology used, the procedures for data analysis, and the results and findings of…

Summarizing vocational educators' perceptions of how well they are able to execute specific performance tasks after completion of inservice training programs in Mississippi, the report is the second in a series of three. The effectiveness of two types of inservice programs was evaluated: those conducted by institutions and those conducted by the…

Although two economic methods, cost effectiveness and benefit-cost analysis, are frequently mentioned as useful tools for educational decision making, only one, cost effectiveness, has potential for making a contribution to this field. A benefit-cost analysis tries for each alternative to measure benefits and costs, which are then discounted to…

The general objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the OCD Career Development Program. The specific objectives were to determine the program's impact on the local civil defense coordinator's knowledge of and ability to build and operate a viable local civil defense organization and to link the official (vertical) civil…

Conducted as a research project in vocational education under Part C of Public Law 90-576, the primary goal of this study was to develop and test a model for the study of the process of job creation, job training, and job placement in the community context. Personal interviews with community leaders, agency representatives, and major employers in…

PLANA is a training program for subject matter analysis and construction of instructional objectives. This evaluation compared the performance of PLANA-trained and control-group teachers as to their precision in defining teaching objectives and their corresponding instructional tasks and test items. (BW)

Evaluated the relative effectiveness of observation-feedback (OF) and skill-based (SB) training methods, as well as sequences of training on the acquisition of structuring and relationship skills. Concluded that the OF-SB sequence showed significant gains in the acquisition of relationship skills. Discussed implications for the training of family…

Unpleasant as it sounds, how providers care for the business aspects of child care can be as vital as how children are cared for. When your business runs smoothly it allows staff to focus on the most important task of all -- providing the best care for children. "The Business of Child Care" supplies guidance for successfully completing the…

This research analyzed 12 Minnesota Technical Colleges' Program Assessments in terms of: (1) Did assessments of their Career and Technical education programs focus on results-related outcomes? (2) Were program assessment measures "related" to programs' goals? (3) Were targeted programs' goals attained? Conclusions: (1) Report findings…