The use of educational technology in K-12 classrooms has been gaining tremendous momentum across the country since the 1990s. Many school districts have been investing heavily in various types of technology, such as computers, mobile devices, internet access, and interactive whiteboards. Almost all public schools have access to the internet and…

The present review examines research on the effects of technology use on reading achievement in K-12 classrooms. Unlike previous reviews, this review applies consistent inclusion standards to focus on studies that met high methodological standards. In addition, methodological and substantive features of the studies are investigated to examine the…

Shows how evaluation design and federal involvement in Youth Employment Demonstration Projects unintentionally cause a negative appraisal. Indicates the problem stems from interaction of the contract research corporation, the educational research establishment, and the federal bureaucracy, rather than a specific methodology or bureaucratic…

Several years ago, California, along with other states, discovered that there was a layering effect of categorical programs, both state and federal. Most programs were aimed at unique populations--disadvantaged, bilingual, etc. This proliferation and the evaluation requirements inherent in each of the categorical efforts created problems of…

The story of the national evaluation of the Follow Through program mirrors the difficulties in trying to evaluate a complex social program that changed its community service orientation to a strategy of planned variation of early childhood programs. (Author/MLF)

Assessing results of grants programs is illustrated with evaluation activities of the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies. Methods considered are ex-ante peer review of proposed work, ex-post peer review of completed work, publications-based methods, and "look-back" methods tracing contributions of past work and…

Albuquerque's Title I evaluation staff is in the process of generating a comprehensive local evaluation design because it considers the federally required product evaluation unsatisfactory. The required mean-gain comparisons were extended beyond the dimension of program to the dimensions of school, grade, and Title I instructor. This evaluation…

Critiquing the stakeholder idea, the author states: if government chooses to take account of competing views in social program evaluation, it can get a better result if it encourages the competing views to find a voice of their own, not to speak through the government's chosen instrument. (Author/PN)

Reviews the process employed in evaluating the national 4-H program. Holds that the evaluation design was influenced by political, rather than methodological, concerns. Takes examples from the 4-H evaluation to illustrate dilemmas that have emerged in current evaluation process and theory. (Author/GC)

Many problems are encountered when evaluating a complex, decentralized national program such as 4-H. Good effects of the federal evaluation mandate include local concern with program quality. Bad effects include that local agencies are forced to utilize noxious methodologies or to collect information they consider to be unimportant. (Author/GC)

An attempt was made to estimate possible bias in terms of Normal Curve Equivalent (NCE) gains of Elementary Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title I projects. Twenty-two state Title I reports for 1978 were examined. The analyses presented were directed at two major sources of bias: bias due to errors in local implementation of models, and bias due…

Argues that the mood of today's racial climate, the ideological demands of many minority social scientists, and the governmental research and funding policies all come together and suggest a racial change in the search for knowledge, and in the methodology and values of social science research. (Author/JM)

Evaluation of Head Start has been based on four sources of information: (1) census surveys of children and families served and programs offered, (2) special research, projects on child development and experimental programs, (3) a longitudinal study of the development of low income children, and (4) a series of national evaluation studies.…

There has been increasing concern about the accountability of federal programs in complying with laws and regulations and in achieving desired results. At the request of Congress, the Government Accounting Office examined how the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ensures Head Start accountability. Data were collected by means of…