A study examined the impact of the "Closing the Achievement Gap" (CAG schools) program on the academic achievement of students in 30 schools serving high percentages of African American and economically disadvantaged students in West Virginia (WV), 2004-2008. The program assigned experienced educators, "CAG liaisons", to the…

The full-purpose partnership (FPP) schoolwide model primarily focuses on prevention and early intervention. This model brings the tenets of service coordination directly into the school and focuses efforts to involve families from a strengths perspective before behavioral issues become significant. A preliminary evaluation has shown that this…

A report is given of a study conducted on the nature and extent of support that local school systems in Maryland currently provide to new teachers. The study had two components: a statewide survey and case studies of promising programs. The survey polled Associate or Assistant Superintendents of Instruction in 23 of Maryland's 24 county school…

This compendium provides information about 29 three-year teacher education projects, funded by the Department of Education in 1985. The projects seek to demonstrate that research utilization and sound practice can improve the preparation of teachers. The projects were developed and are operating collaboratively with local schools. Each has a…

This publication reports the Student Parent Educator Administrator Children (SPEAC) for Nutrition Program evaluation of the effectiveness of a child care food service personnel training curriculum and a model curriculum package for preschool children. Evaluation of the food service curriculum package was accomplished in part by a pre- and…

The District Facilitator Project (DFP) was designed to help public and private schools in the District of Columbia to improve their programs by linking them with exemplary projects that have proven successful in districts around the country. The DFP provides coordination and technical assistance services for implementing the selected program in a…

In a demonstration of the Appalachia Educational Laboratory's (AEL's) Community Partnership for School Improvement model, Hart County (Kentucky) community members and school representatives planned and implemented a school improvement project to increase parents' involvement in their children's education. In May 1988, 203 out of 625 questionnaires…

This final report discusses the administration, staffing, planning, implementation and evaluation of the SPEAC (Student Parent Educator Administrator Children) for Nutrition Program. The principle objective of the program is to provide nutrition education and increased understanding of the role of the Child Care Food Program through increased…

School counselors are required to implement accountability strategies in order to increase student performance and contribute to closing the achievement gap. This study investigates the beliefs and practices of school counselors who have earned national recognition for implementing comprehensive school counseling programs based on identifying…

This summary outlines the key findings from a national evaluation of the first-year trials of the New Relationship with Schools (NRwS) carried out by a team at the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER). The trials took place in the period September 2004 to July 2005 and involved 93 schools in eight local educational authorities…

Since the passage of the Manpower Development and Training Act of 1962 (MDTA), the Department of Labor has funded over $30 million worth of experimental and demonstration (E and D) projects in an effort to discover some new directions for dealing with the unemployment problems of disadvantaged youth. To evaluate the effectiveness of these and…

The fourth publication in the Model Schools series, this guide for administrators suggests changes and procedures that come mainly from the authors' experience in the Model Schools Project, a five-year program sponsored by the National Association of Secondary School Principals. The project's purpose was to demonstrate in a group of schools that…

Some of the major issues related to planning evaluations of federal human services national demonstration programs are discussed. Barriers to conducting evaluations are discussed for the policy level and cross-site and within-site evaluation contexts. Among the proposed solutions is the use of an explicit programmatic developmental sequence. (SLD)

This paper discusses evaluation of human service programs. Evaluation can be useful because: (1) evaluative data can be relevant to the basic goal of a demonstration to field test some strategy or technique; (2) process evaluation can help generate enthusiasm for self-improvement among staff; (3) evaluation can help build a communication network…

Examines why an elementary school, set up as a model school promoting learning effectiveness, was not working as predicted. Concentrates on staff assessments of principal's role. (JW)