In discussing the problems of evaluating Canadian bilingual immersion programs, six related aspects are separately considered: (1) the research design, (2) the students tested, (3) the nature of the tests used, (4) the methods of analysis employed, and (5) the interpretation of findings. (Author/SJL)

Twenty-six papers concerning Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title I program evaluation--presented at the 1978 American Educational Research Association/National Council on Measurement in Education meeting--are summarized. Speakers from the federal government are: C.T. Cross (see ED 156 695); R.L. Fishbein; and D. Ozenne. State department…

Using examples from evaluations of the Emergency School Aid Act (ESAA) Basic Grants Program, the ESAA Pilot Program, and the sustaining effects of compensatory education programs, school and student attrition are discussed. As in the example cases, appreciable attrition can be expected in most longitudinal studies. The possible effects of this…

A number of organizational, personal and methodological characteristics have been identified through the literature which inhibit or can be used to facilitate the use of evaluation and testing information. Inhibitors of information usage include organizational characteristics such as loosely coupled and decentralized systems, personal…

An evaluation of Round One of a pilot study of a system for identifying effective youth organizations around the world is presented in this report. The report begins with a page of general observations about the successes and shortcomings of the pilot study, indicating that in general the study accomplished its objectives but that a need for…

The purpose of this paper is to outline and explain the evaluation system used by the Rhode Island Department of Education to measure the effectiveness of compensatory education programs. An exposition of how relevant background, program and financial information is collected is presented. In addition, a delineation is made of the methods…

Discusses the need for awareness of real and potential problems in educational evaluation approaches, kinds of problems there are with true experimental designs and with quasi-experimental designs, and the criteria applied by the Joint Dissemination Review Panel to its review of educational programs. (MF)

Although dealing broadly with issues involving program evaluation, this paper is especially concerned with large-scale evaluations of federally funded education programs that are national in scope and, to some extent at least, compensatory in nature. The paper concentrates on a few basic problem areas that seem inherent in the concept of…

Threats to the validity of the Title I Evaluation and Reporting System are covered in two parts: an annotated bibliography of reports concerned with technical issues, and a discussion of threats to validity--from the reporting system in general and from each model in particular. Threats common to all three evaluation models are reported:…

Many people hope that the unique skills and perspectives of anthropologists can help them to make the contributions to social programs that have eluded other social scientists. Ethnography promises to make a significant contribution to evaluation of educational innovations. Before this promise can be realized, however, there are many practical and…

One of the overriding problems of any psychometric study is that aspects of behavior that are nonquantifiable or difficult to quantify are not considered. The other side of this coin is that those aspects of behavior that are easiest to quantify tend to be what are examined. In evaluating bilingual education programs, problems are found in the…

Many of the evaluations summarized in state and local Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title I reports have been negatively affected by methodological errors or the use of different, incompatible formats. Although new, detailed evaluation and reporting procedures have been developed for Title I research projects, two problems remain:…

Abstracts are presented of the major conference papers and thematic discussions delivered at the 1978 Measurement and Methodology Conference. The titles of the presentations are: Policy-Responsive Evaluation (Wiley); When Educators Set Standards (Glass); Comments on Wiley and Glass (Schutz); Key Standard-Setting Considerations for Minimal…