Syntheses of research on educational programs have taken on increasing policy importance. Procedures for performing such syntheses must therefore produce reliable, unbiased, and meaningful information on the strength of evidence behind each program. Because evaluations of any given program are few in number, syntheses of program evaluations must…

The authors of this article consider how education researchers can improve school violence and school safety research by (a) examining gaps in theoretical, conceptual, and basic research on the phenomena of school violence; (b) reviewing key issues in the design and evaluation of evidence-based practices to prevent school violence; and (c)…

This response to Slavin's article (2008) explores the issues of transparency, representation, and warranting of claims in Slavin's descriptions of the work of others and his suggestions for program evaluation syntheses. Through contrastive analyses between Slavin's representations of the program evaluation synthesis efforts of five organizations…

Standard practice in educational program evaluation expends considerable resources in planning and executing elaborate research designs, but lacks description of how the programs do differ in the experimental'' and control'' situations. A serious consequence is that elaborately designed evaluation studies may end up appraising non-events, with…

Notes that even with the problems identified in this paper, consistent, positive results are appearing in preliminary reports. Equally important, the data seem to support a number of reasonable notions about the impact of distinctive curricula on students. (Author/AM)

Education researchers, practitioners, and policymakers alike are committed to identifying interventions that teach students more effectively. Increased emphasis on evaluation and accountability has increased desire for sound evaluations of these interventions; and at the same time, school-level data have become increasingly available. This article…