In this case study, a team of doctoral students--Luis M. Andrade, Angela Hoppe Nagao, Esmeralda Medrano, and Josephine Macharia Lowe--in a community college leadership program participated in a service-learning field project as part of an organizational theory course to analyze comparative outcomes of a college orientation and preparation program…

"Impact" is a notion that is not very well understood in research. Within Australian higher education, it has been bandied about within such frameworks as the "Research Quality Framework" ("RQF") and Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA). Vocational education and training (VET) research is not immune from these…

Despite expansive improvements in both treatments and research, the majority of persons with autism use non-empirically supported interventions. One way to decrease the research-to-practice gap involves increasing the direct applicability of research findings to clinical settings. Effectiveness research achieves this goal by identifying treatments…

A leader in the field of educational evaluation discusses her views on: (1) research utilization; (2) concepts of "knowledge creep" and "decision accretion"; (3) allegation that evaluation is used to legitimate a decision maker's previously determined course of action; and (4) the importance of validity and utility in evaluation. (Author/RL)

The findings from a series of case studies of nine successful demonstration programs are summarized. The programs, funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission, included child development, vocational education, technology, economic development, and housing. The primary purpose of the case studies was to discover what makes programs successful. A…

Two evaluation projects conducted for the Minnesota Agricultural Extension Service are examined from a user-focused perspective: (1) a needs assessment of large scale commercial farmers for program development by the Office of Special Programs; and (2) a review of the extension programs in Nicollet County. Each incorporated the focus group method…

In an interview with Albert H. Quie, governor of Minnesota, he gives his opinion about the impact of research studies or educational evaluation on policy decision making in Congress, and the role of Congressional Committee staff members. (MH)

Although the primary purpose of this report is to present prototypical procedures for conducting two-year college vocational follow-up studies, it also describes the implementation and results of using these procedures in the evaluation of the electronics, computer science, and tool and manufacturing programs at Los Angeles Pierce College. After…

A multimethod evaluation of a major Canadian strategic grant program with surveys of 74 funded projects, 4 case studies, and interviews with researchers and grant application staff reveals the favorable effects of partnerships between research and practice on research and dissemination strategies in spite of ideological and pragmatic constraints.…

The methodology procedures for a national study of vocational education systems and facilities are presented in this third of a four-volume report. Chapter I describes the development of study requirements (analysis of requirements and study development activities) and the development of study implementation (local education agency survey…