Reviewing the many possible outcomes (intended and unintended) of vocational education programs, the author posits four tests for evaluation criteria: appropriateness, importance, feasibility, and usefulness. He discusses policy implications of the lack of consensus over the particular outcomes for which vocational education should be accountable.…

The professional future of student personnel workers depends on: (1) the survival concerns of higher education; (2) present student personnel leadership; (3) programs developed by student personnel workers; (4) their training programs; and (5) the workers themselves. Limitations must be corrected for the profession to survive. (Author/JAC)

The use of statistics on grades as a criteria for accountability is limiting and misleading. Alternative indicators of school performance are suggested, including the Scottish Education Data Archive. (JMF)

The focus in this book is on steering a course between rigorous definitions and theory and applied attempts to measure costs and benefits in the real world. As an introduction to the concepts underlying cost-benefit analysis, this volume is well-written and comprehensive for a book of its length. (SLD)

Findings from meta-analyses of outdoor education, psychotherapy, and educational innovations are presented to help determine the relative efficacy of adventure therapy programs. While adventure therapy effects are stronger than those of outdoor education, they are not nearly as strong as those of individual psychotherapy. Benchmarks are derived…

Argues that an increased federal government emphasis on accountability will have a great impact on reading teachers in the 1990s. Explains the changes brought about by the Hawkins-Stafford Elementary and Secondary Education Improvement Amendments of 1988. Explores the possibilities for responding to a strengthened federal focus on accountability.…

College and university public relations professionals are encouraged to follow the example of business in managing their publications programs. Planning, marketing those plans to the campus community, involving administration, and assuming accountability are seen as key elements in publications program success. (MSE)

Passage of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 ushered in a new era of accountability for educational institutions and social programs in the United States. Federal funding became tied to demonstrated results on the basis of scientifically based research. In this paper we recount the science-to-policy translation process for one of the…

Current accountability policy that bases assessment on validity and reliability criteria in the positivist research tradition is counterproductive to serving adult learners and their communities. In this article, we outline a framework for accountability that allows for the emergence and demonstration of the full range of program outcomes and…

This research evaluated the outcomes of a school psychology training practicum by replicating intervention-based service delivery procedures established in prior research. The key components include describing a service delivery model, teaching the model, deriving practice guidelines that fit the model, supporting trainees in carrying out the…

A fatal flaw in accountability programs is that they leave academic departments--the units most responsible for results--out of the performance loop. This article ties together institutional priorities and departmental performance through a limited list of common departmental indicators. It also links institutional aims and departmental…

Although afterschool programs for children have been operating for many years in some communities, the afterschool movement--the great national awakening to the opportunity afterschool offers--is just a few years old. As public demand for afterschool has grown, so has the demand for accountability. That is particularly true in afterschool…