The implementation of a district-wide testing program requires careful consideration of credibility issues. These issues have been frequently overlooked or treated casually by test developers and users alike. It is well enough to study the reliability and validity issues involved when selecting instrumentation. It is also necessary to identify…

A 10-year-old boy with inappropriate social behavior was placed in a program of positive reinforcement and response cost. The boy earned plastic coins for good behavior and lost coins for inappropriate behavior. Rewards for given levels of earnings included extra recess time and field trips. Inappropriate behaviors decreased from a mean of 6.8…

In order to ascertain the effectiveness of programed instruction as compared to teacher instruction and to evaluate the quality of classroom research by teachers, the Canadian Teachers' Federation offered ten instruction programs on mathematics and chemistry to teachers throughout the country and asked them to evaluate the effectiveness of the…

There is general agreement that human services (i.e., services that depend on direct interpersonal contact between a deliverer and a client) are difficult to evaluate. The author points out some sources of this difficulty and proposes a strategy for the evaluation of human services delivery. (Author/GDC)

Examined the motivation to attend quality circle (QC) meetings and the task performance of 47 QC's over a three-year period as a function of self- versus management-initiation. Results showed that although they attracted fewer members, management-initiated QC's solved more problems and solved their problems faster than did self-initiated QC's.…

The synthesis of 35 single-subject nonaversive treatments of classroom behavior problems indicated that reinforcement and feedback are highly effective as a remedy across a variety of behaviors, settings, and administrative arrangements. (Author/DB)

Based on a survey and case studies of workplaces in the U.S. and Japan, this article reviews and assesses the role of worker participation in tackling critical problems associated with energy and natural resources conservation. Certain wider implications for labor-management relations are also discussed. (Author/CT)

Evaluated effectiveness of Self-Esteem: A Family Affair program with families that had adolescent children. Families, randomly assigned to treatment (N=13) or control (N=14) groups, were measured for self-esteem, family adaptability, family cohesion, and family conflict. A significant difference between treatment and control families on measures…

Describes a group counseling program that helps retarded inmates develop problem solving skills and learn to use existing resources in their own behalf. An outcome study of 46 inmates indicated combined group and individual counseling was more effective than individual counseling alone. (JAC)

Examines how the autoregressive earnings model developed by Ashenfelter to evaluate job-training programs can produce badly biased estimates of the magnitude and temporal pattern of program effects. Finds that the decay in Ashenfelter's estimated training effect for men was produced by a time-varying bias in his model, and presents a new, more…

Reviews research concerning sustained silent reading and lists factors that are important in determining whether such a reading program is successful. (FL)

This document consists of the two 2002 issues of the newsletter of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education (ERIC/EECE). Each issue contains a feature article and one or more short articles on topics related to early childhood education, calls for papers, announcements about Internet resources, news items about and list…

There are many ways to assess the effectiveness of school conflict resolution training (CRT) programs. Some methods require extensive resources, but others, conducted by CRT practitioners themselves, also provide useful information. This digest presents a framework for CRT evaluation by practitioners that enables them to reflect productively on…

This paper reviews the literature concerning school-wide discipline systems. It examines strategies suggested by experts, the effectiveness of these systems, and research indicating promising school-wide discipline practices. Only systems containing proactive or positive school-wide procedures were considered in the review of 34 articles. The…

The report evaluates a special initiative of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Department of Education of Northern Ireland (DENI) in 1996-1997 and 1998-1999 to encourage institutions to develop high quality provisions for students with disabilities and to increase the participation in higher education of students…