Programs that improve teaching effectiveness represent a core strategy to improve student educational outcomes and close student achievement gaps. This article compiles empirical values of intraclass correlations for designing effective and efficient experimental studies evaluating the effects of these programs. The Early Childhood Longitudinal…

Intended to guide scholars who are new to qualitative research, this methods brief focuses mostly on what reviewers look for in manuscripts submitted for publication. The author acknowledges that reviewers' preferences likely reflect their theoretical perspectives, research-oriented coursework, mentors, and research and writing experiences. The…

The growth in the availability of longitudinal data--data collected over time on the same individuals--as part of program evaluations has opened up exciting possibilities for evaluators to ask more nuanced questions about how individuals' outcomes change over time. However, in order to leverage longitudinal data to glean these important insights,…

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professionals generate a stream of scientific discoveries and technological innovations that fuel job creation and national economic growth. Ensuring a robust supply of these professionals is critical for sustaining growth and creating jobs growth at a time of intense global competition.…

Interest in early care and education (ECE), also referred to as an early childhood education, has escalated in recent years. The interest is bipartisan, as evidenced by the multiple ECE-related bills already introduced by the 113th Congress. Further, 39 states have implemented prekindergarten (pre-K) programs. In 2013, 27 governors mentioned ECE…

E-learning researchers face considerable challenges in creating meaningful and generalizable studies due to the complex nature of this dynamic training medium. Our experience in conducting workplace e-learning research led us to create this guide for planning research on e-learning. We share the unanticipated complications we encountered in our…

Background: This article reports on an evaluation study of a project seeking to develop the use of position-linked datalogging with primary pupils in environmental science contexts. Purpose: The study sought to find out the extent to which the project had developed: (1) participant teachers' confidence in using datalogging as an everyday part of…

Introduction: Mentoring is a central component of professional development. Evaluation of "successful" mentoring programs, however, has been limited and mainly focused on measures of satisfaction with the relationship. In today's environment, mentoring programs must produce tangible outcomes to demonstrate success. To address this issue,…

With increasing availability of interventions for children with autism, it is important that these are backed by rigorous evaluation data that have high levels of ecological validity. To achieve this, a key prerequisite for any evaluation is to gather data on typical consumers and typical implementation patterns of the intervention. This study…

A case record methodology for documenting the behavior of individual children in the Head Start Planned Variation program is reported. Planned Variation is an attempt to provide longitudinal, comparative information as to the effects of formulated models on children served by preschool education programs. The report documents the behavior of…

Advocates that the Current Population Survey (CPS) be redesigned to permit valid longitudinal studies, that the CPS include questions to evaluate poverty programs, that a common sampling framework be designed for the CPS and operating agencies serving the poor to assure that links between CPS and other data can be established, and that samples of…

An approach for merging quantitative-qualitative data in order to enlarge the evaluators' perspective and provide an enriched data base for evaluating elusive evaluation problems in school settings is described. Mini-case studies were conducted over a period of three years in 11 urban schools to examine the impact of an arts-in-the-schools program…

The topics discussed in this resource book include not only how to assess the long-term impact of early childhood Title I programs, but also how to develop and use a longitudinal information system for a variety of routine operations. The book is designed to help evaluators decide what a particular information system should look like. For…

The report is an accounting of activities of the Vocational Development Study (VDS) project during the three-year funding period of July 1971 to July 1974. The longitudinal study, planned to cover a 10-year span, was begun in the fall of 1968. The project was developed to identify the effects of the high school experience on youth in vocational…

This mandated report to Congress describes the background and purposes of a national study of Head Start impact, the progress of the study, current activities to conduct a field test and prepare for the main study, and the projected timeline for study completion. The report notes that in 2000, a contract was awarded to determine on a national…