The five largest insular areas of the United States--American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands--receive federal funding through Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), joint federal-state programs that finance health care for certain low-income…

The authors provide an overview of the Cooperative Extension System and its program evaluation challenges. Part of the historic land-grant system, Extension exists in all states and territories of the United States and is funded through federal, state, and local (usually county) appropriations, as well as competitive grants and other sources.…

The Johnson-O'Malley Act (JOM), passed by Congress in 1934, authorized the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to contract with the states and other political entities for educational services to American Indians. Although the rationale for the JOM program was not understood well by a high proportion of the Indian patrons of public schools or by the…

These transcripts present testimony concerning the effects of changes in the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Summer Food Service Program mandated by the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. Major changes were: (1) reduced federal subsidies for sponsors; (2) eliminated federal subsidies for a fourth daily meal in…

Three citizen advisory boards, designed to advise elected officials on how federal money should be spent locally, were examined. The Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) Planning Council, the Citizen's Task Force on Community Development Block Grants (two groups mandated by federal legislation), and the Human Services Commission (a…

An HEW audit of federal-state child care programs for low-income families in nine states has revealed "day care riddled with shoddy administration that adversely affects the quality of child care provided." (Author/CS)

Presented in this report is an extensive evaluation of three library projects located in Chicago, Peoria, and the suburban Chicago area. All the projects reviewed have strong and weak points. Generally, the strong elements are a vigorous commitment to the people served, emphasis on inexpensive paperback books and collections of books stressing…

The State and Local Fiscal Assistance Act of 1972 was shaped by a decade of discussion and compromise. Under the Act, federal funds have been disbursed to all State and local general purpose governments from 1972 through 1976. This legislation has been renewed without major revision. The principal focus of this work is an evaluation of the…

This report is Part 2 of the Advisory Commission's second assessment of The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. The first assessment was made in 1970. The report is divided into two major sections: (1) a comparative analysis of the 10 case studies of Safe Streets experience and individual state reports; and (2) the questionnaires…

This report is Part 1 of the Advisory Commission's second assessment of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968; the first assessment took place in 1970. The purpose of this report is to determine how well the block grant has worked since that time and what statutory and administrative changes are desirable. The report is divided…

Under the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, Congress established the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to expand health insurance coverage to uninsured low-income children. This report summarizes the major findings of the first year of a national evaluation of SCHIP. Following a summary of major findings, the report examines state…

Fourteen special five-week summer programs for 1,300 migrant children are helping them develop self-sufficiency and self-esteem as well as gain basic skills in language development. (Editor)

The U.S. Department of Education's financial management environment and effectiveness are described, together with the reliability of its accounting and internal control systems for the management of the money it gives or lends to schools, individual students, states, and local education agencies. The study found that key accounting and related…

The future role and importance of educational evaluation are analyzed in terms of the Educational Consolidation and Improvement Act (1981), a block grant whose provisions minimize planning, reporting, evaluation and accountability requirements to ensure that national goals are met. The background in federal and state evaluation programs is…

As a condition of receiving federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds, states are required to operate Child Support Enforcement (CSE) programs. Families receiving TANF are required to participate in the CSE program; families not receiving TANF may also request CSE services. However, since 1994, an increasing number of states…