Concerns about the rising cost of college and growing student loan debt have intensified in recent years, with 85% of non-enrolled adults citing affordability as a key barrier (Gallup & Lumina Foundation, 2024) and a third of currently enrolled college students agreeing that their "institution charges too much for an undergraduate…

Community-based education programs must demonstrate effectiveness to various funding sources. The pilot study reported here (funded by CYFAR, NIFA, USDA award #2008-41520-04810) had the goal of determining if state level programs with varied curriculum could use a common evaluation tool to demonstrate efficacy. Results in parenting and youth…

Information is provided concerning Title I programs, Elementary and Secondary Education Act, for handicapped children in Iowa state-supported institutions. Aspects covered include operation and services, evaluation, dissemination, major problem areas, and interrelationships with other local, state, and federal programs for the handicapped. (JD)

Interest is growing in planning and implementing new systems of holding child and family services accountable for results. The Results-Based Accountability (RBA) Project at the Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) has supported and built upon recent state efforts to develop these new accountability systems for child and family services. The RBA…

Staff members at the Iowa Department of Education are involved in a 3-year initiative (1998-2001) to strengthen school improvement efforts at the local school, district, and intermediate service agency levels. Papers presented at a symposium of the American Educational Research Association annual meeting describe the multiple purposes and design…

An interview with Lawrence R. Sargent, a state special education consultant, focuses on state education agency problems related to evaluation, state evaluation and monitoring of programs for mentally retarded students, and Iowa's approach to developing instructional outcome criteria as a measure of program quality. (CL)

This report presents Iowa's performance indicators of program quality in adult basic education (ABE) programs and describes the process by which they were developed. The performance indicators fulfill the mandate of the National Literacy Act of 1991 to serve as indicators of program quality. They were developed through a comprehensive process that…

This report describes the structure, format, and processes of Iowa's General Educational Development (GED) test center structure and presents the results, conclusions, and recommendations from an evaluation of that structure. The major purposes of the evaluation were to assess the effectiveness of Iowa's new statewide GED structure, determine…

Project BEAM, a special experimental demonstration project funded by the Adult Education Act, attempted to motivate undereducated adult Iowans to learn to read, to make the project known, and to make available for nationwide distribution the television and radio materials developed for the project. The two-phase project was conducted from…

The Iowa Research Coordinating Unit is located in the State Department of Public Instruction and is responsible through the Director, Vocational Education Branch, to the Associate Superintendent, Vocational Education Branch. The unit initiates activity to stimulate, encourage, and coordinate statewide research on employment opportunities, human…

The Iowa Adult Basic Education Assessment Study was conducted to document the qualities of excellence, accountability, and purpose that are present in Iowa's adult basic education (ABE) program. A six-step documentation procedure included creation of an ABE task force; submission of written assessment reports from ABE coordinators; development,…

Volume 1 presents the findings of an evaluation of Iowa's "merged area" organizational system for adult basic education (ABE), a system which operates from 15 regional community colleges or vocational-technical schools serving as area schools. The perspective discrepancy assessment methodology of the evaluation team was the outgrowth of…

Volume 2 contains copies of the instruments used in the assessment of Iowa's adult basic education (ABE) program and aggregate statewide responses. Included are questionnaires and findings completed by the evaluation committee, coordinators, directors, teachers (both intent and current practice forms), students, learning center coordinators,…

In fall 1992, the Iowa Department of Education began pilot tests of the Comprehensive Adult Student Assessment System (CASAS), an assessment system evaluating reading, math, and problem solving in a life skills context for adult remedial programs. This document provides reports from the nine community colleges that served as test sites, describing…

An executive summary of a study of early intervention policies for young children at risk of academic failure in state education agencies (SEAs) in the North Central United States is provided. The SEAs selected for the study were located in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Policies developed before January, 1989…