This planning guide is designed to help communities answer important questions about programs to address youth violence, including finding out the types of programs that are effective and learning how to implement them. The guide is divided into four sections. Section 1, "Key Facts about Youth Violence," presents key facts about youth violence…

After the first year, funding for the Reading Recovery program in the Muscogee County School District in Georgia was to be contingent upon getting results that would document the success of Reading Recovery in the system. The following measures were used for program evaluation: An Observation Survey of Early Literacy Achievement (Clay, 1993); Iowa…

School-based planning for instructional improvement has been a major national education reform focus for over 2 decades. However, many efforts proposed to put schools in charge of their own instructional operations delivered only increased discretion rather than real autonomy over internal operations, such as budgeting. In 1997, New York City…

This, the second of three annual reports by the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), continues to track central policy and developments in the implementation of the British National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies (NLS and NNS). The report considers value for money in their funding and on the perception and experience of the…

New American Schools (NAS) was formed in 1991 to create and develop whole-school designs that would be adopted by schools throughout the country in order to improve student performance. This book is a retrospective on NAS and draws together the finding from RAND research. Chapter 1, the introduction, gives an overview of NAS, RAND's purpose and…

This paper describes the implementation and evaluation of a social competence promotion program conducted in the sixth grade of a middle school. The need to increase social competence within the school arose from the results of enumerative and stakeholder data collected at the school. This paper outlines the steps of the needs assessment, program…

The authors present a step-by-step approach to a phased-in career development model to help develop, restructure, evaluate, and implement a program. Steps include: examine existing practices; sell top management; communicate corporate philosophy; integrate the program; design workshops; and evaluate. (CT)

The evaluators of Push/Excel assumed that it was a systematically developed program with measurable outcomes, not a charismatically inspired movement whose effects would be hard to pin down. As a result, neither the program nor the evaluation approach used were adequately tested. (Author)

Describes IMPACT II, an experimental teacher-to-teacher network that encourages teacher-initiated innovations by offering "developer" and "replicator" grants. Reports the results of a survey evaluation of the project and concludes that innovation works best from the bottom up. (Author/WD)

Addresses the issue of whether there is reasonable justification to warrant public school sponsorship of adventure programs; considers accident rates, advantages and values, legal implications, and program implementation effects including staffing, facilities, equipment, and scheduling. Concludes that adventure education is a healthy, valuable,…

Presents a model for linking CETA with vocational education to implement entrepreneurship at the local level. Discusses staff responsibilities, the entrepreneurship lab, and a project evaluation. (CT)

Discussed the State of Colorado's introduction of performance contracting into its relationships with community mental health centers. Describes the nature of the contract and its implementation. Particular emphasis is placed on the implications of the contract for program evaluation. (Author)

This eight chapters of this special issue introduce the use of a template to specify program components as a new tool for program evaluation. The template articulates the components needed for program delivery and provides a systematic method for assessing program implementation. (SLD)

Describes the Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) Initiative currently underway in the Tyrone Area School District. The goals of the SS/HS Initiative involve reducing risk and building competencies for students and their families through integration of law enforcement and mental health into school-based prevention efforts. Program evaluation is…

In Salinas, California, a Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS)-funded program is helping children and their families grapple with issues pertaining to violence, substance abuse, mental health, and academic success. In just two years, the program has helped educators and service providers deter school crime, provide on-campus therapy to troubled…