This paper explores the methodological implications of applying an ethnographic sensibility to evaluation in service-learning. It describes the evolution of such a method over the past 10 years within the Citizen Scholars Program at the University of Massachusetts, and outlines what we have learned from employing this method, as well as the…

This three-volume report describes the "SAM (School Administration Manager) process," an approach that about 700 schools around the nation are using to direct more of principals' time and effort to improve teaching and learning in classrooms. Research has shown that a principal's instructional leadership is second only to teaching among…

In this set of four supplemental tables, the authors compare the baseline test scores of the treatment and matched control group samples observed in each year after KIPP entry (outcome years 1 to 4). As discussed in Chapter III, the authors used an iterative propensity score estimation procedure to calculate each student's probability of entering…

Comments on an article by Kotelchuck and colleagues concerning the benefits of WIC participation on pregnancy outcomes. Raises methodological considerations, especially the effects of duration of WIC participation and benefits, and the problem of matching study subjects with controls. (GC)

This paper examines the educational impacts of the Berkshire Wireless Learning Initiative (BWLI), a pilot program that provided 1:1 technology access to all students and teachers across five public and private middle schools in western Massachusetts. Using a pre/post comparative study design, the current study explores a wide range of program…

As part of a statewide (Massachusetts) evaluation in all areas of education, the reading assessment described in this report tested all 9- and 17-year-old students in 31 school districts in an effort to examine student performance statewide as well as in the individual educational regions and communities. The first four chapters of the report…

The Global 2000 project was a 3-year project aimed at improving literacy in five Massachusetts manufacturing companies. To help determine the project's effectiveness, a team of external evaluators analyzed the relationship between the knowledge students gained in the classroom, their actual performance on the job, and the resulting business impact…

The Global 2000 project was a 3-year project aimed at improving literacy in five Massachusetts manufacturing companies. At four of the five Global 2000 program sites, an external evaluator conducted focus groups and open-ended interviews with members of the projects' employee involvement teams, previous students, and teachers. The evaluator also…