A research project was initiated by the San Antonio Accreditation program to compare results of overlapping validations made with three instruments: San Antonio's Family Day Care Rating Scale (FDCRS), Dallas Child Care Partnership's Family Day Care Observation Instrument (FDCOI), and the National Association for Family Day Care's (NAFDC)…

The extent to which evaluation research and psychology share some common objectives, methods and aims for validity is examined. The conventional dichotomy drawn between the two disciplines is seen as spurious and misleading to scholars and practitioners in each area. To demonstrate the proposed synergy between the two disciplines, an integrative…

A comprehensive conceptual framework for the validation of educational programs has been proposed. The conceptual framework includes the concept of an educational program as a system of curricular and instructional claims and methods of evaluation which entail a wide range of judgments of both logical validity and factual validity. Judgments of…

Focusing on issues related to the training of industrial workers in Brazil, this article reports the findings of a study which evaluated the effectiveness of vocational training offered by the National Industrial Apprenticeship Service. (LRA)

Schools of the Dallas Independent School District have developed procedures to implement and monitor school improvement measures. The district aims to improve student achievement in four areas: functional literacy, mathematics, reading, and basic language arts. Participants in instructional improvement include teachers, principals, administrators,…

A plan has been initiated in Georgia to ensure that project directors and evaluators are cognizant of and organized to meet criteria specified in the Identification, Validation, and Dissemination (IVD) guidelines. The evaluation/validation process involves eight steps: (1) evaluator training, (2) proposal screening, (3) critique of evaluation…

This study was the second year of a project that attempted to formulate criteria for project evaluation and funding decisions. Activities were designed to produce measures of project impact for vocational education projects. The second year's work focused on refinement of impact variables, and a survey of directors of vocational education…

The purpose of this monograph is to aid practitioners in gaining federal Joint Dissemination Review Panel (JDRP) approval of career education projects. It helps them understand the importance of designing and implementing a sound evaluation from the early stages of the program, alerts them to common errors or omissions that weaken or destroy…

This article explores the utilization of qualitative methodologies in program evaluation, the rationale for using these approaches, and the potential qualitative applications within evaluation. It also describes the "scientific" and "artistic" qualitative methodologies, suggests practical qualitative application, and calls for…

The state validation process in New York identifies promising practices developed through the Elementary Secondary Education Act Title IV-C funding. The new validation procedures included in this handbook are revised to: (1) make the evaluation process easier to apply; (2) provide technical assistance in evaluating the project; (3) extend…

The purpose of this paper is to review some of the methods used for the impact evaluation of Demonstrator-Developer projects and to promote the meta-analysis approach. Four examples of attempts to collect and analyze impact data from adopters are presented, one of which used the meta-analysis approach. In this example, each adopter collected pre…

A six-month study and evaluation of statewide California program review procedures focused on four major questions: (1) What is statewide program review? (2) To whom is it important? (3) How does it operate in California? and (4) How can it be made more responsive to questions of quality and accountability? Four state administrative offices were…

Presents a teacher's journal of her experiences in the accreditation process of the Willow Wood Pre-School in Winnetka, Illinois by the National Academy of Early Childhood Programs. (BB)

China is the world's largest market for solar water heating systems, installing 13 million square meters of new systems in 2004, mostly in large cities. Municipal authorities, however, are sensitive to quality and visual impact issues created by this technology deployment. Therefore, there is currently a trend toward developing building integrated…

This guide provides a brief overview of the issues involved in the validation process. It was developed for evaluators of adult education projects, such as 310 projects. The guide is organized in three sections. The first section discusses the rationale for validation. The second section describes the characteristics of validation models. The…