An evaluation procedure was formulated to ascertain the effectiveness of an emphasis on the clarity and interest appeal of a composition as opposed to its mechanical correctness in improving a child's written expression. A random sample of themes were submitted to a general evaluation of content by six criteria and a linguistic analysis by nine…

PLAN is an ungraded, computer supported, individualized program of education. This paper discusses the development of this program year by year. The first two years were limited, both in curriculum and content pacing. The third year was much more comprehensive. The fourth year will involve all grades, and will have lessons which are behaviorally…

Functions which the evaluation of instruction are analyzed and described. In order to fulfill each of these functions, a 3 X 3 evaluation matrix incorporating three distinct "levels" of evaluation activity and three sources of evaluation information is proposed. Level 1 data will be summary data for use in campus-wide comparisons. Level 2 data…

The authors focus on the organizational context of training evaluation and discuss the following main themes: What organizational factors need to be considered? What sort of objectivity can evaluation studies aspire to? What can training gain from approaches to evaluation originating outside the training literature? (CT)

A quantitative way of measuring peer tutor training programs and peer tutor effectiveness is presented. The evaluation of a peer group training course at Baruch College (City University of New York), for which this questionnaire was developed, is described. This measure is adaptable to most higher education peer tutoring programs. (Author/BS)

This study examined the classroom practices of 265 elementary school teachers from the Chicago, Illinois, public school system who were participating in an intensive professional development program. The program included classroom coaching and mentoring activities in support of instructional sessions conducted over time. Based on more than 1,700…

This paper focused on evaluation efforts related to projects involving performance contracts and some of the major problems encountered. (Author/RK)

Describes six practical ways of answering critical questions about the effectiveness of training. These evaluation methods are: (1) delayed treatment, (2) modified critical incident, (3) followup, (4) performance analysis, (5) time-series evaluation, and (6) cost-benefit analysis. (JOW)

Challenges encountered in developing and maintaining an extensive evaluation program at Ohio State University are retrospectively reconstructed. The setting, the history of program development, and the nature of the program are described as a backdrop for discussion of six issues with implications for program development. (SLD)

This article examines the case for the use of the creative arts in the process of designing, conducting, analyzing, and disseminating evaluations. The authors argue that using the creative arts in the process of evaluation evokes different ways of knowing and understanding the values of a program. The insights gained offer a unique addition to…

This article presents the state of practice of evaluability assessment (EA) as represented in the published literature from 1986 to 2006. Twenty-three EA studies were located, showing that EA was conducted in a wide variety of programs, disciplines, and settings. Most studies employed document reviews, site visits, and interviews, common…

The partnership between AISD and the Charles A. Dana Center was designed to improve the teaching and learning of math and showed promise in its second year of implementation. This report provides a detailed summary of results.

Rapidly declining response rates and the associated threat of nonresponse bias call into question the validity of data obtained through telephone surveys, a tool often used in evaluation. This article explores changes in nonresponse bias over time by examining three data points (1991, 1996, and 2002) from an annual household telephone survey…

For some time, special education has been plagued by shortages of qualified teaching staff and by high turnover rates for these staff. While several factors--external, employment and personal--are largely responsible for this situation, the research demonstrates that the initial professional experiences of early career teachers are closely…

This study explored the effectiveness of communication training for clergy, working to create an outcomes assessment model for such endeavors. Clergy-participants (N=46) completed an extensive training process designed to increase the transformative quality of their sermon communication. Training outcomes were assessed with a prepost test design,…