To promote prenatal health and improve birth outcomes, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) developed the Strong Start for Mothers and Newborns initiative. The Strong Start initiative is assessing several enhanced prenatal care approaches, including home visiting. As part of the Strong Start initiative, CMS, in partnership with the…

During the 2004 legislative session, the Colorado General Assembly enacted Senate Bill 189 (SB189), which established the first system of college vouchers in the United States. The supporters of SB189 hoped that the voucher system, called the College Opportunity Fund (COF), would: 1) stabilize the flow of state funding to higher education; 2)…

We used a comparative interrupted time series design to examine the impact of the Massachusetts' Wraparound Zone Initiative on student achievement, attendance, retention, and suspension. This initiative was designed to create coordinated district systems that allow schools to proactively and systematically address students' nonacademic needs. The…

Two groups of preservice graduate students conducted action research projects in collaboration with a faculty member at two different minority middle schools in New York. In a qualitative approach, one research team explored an effective after school program for achieving, but at risk students. The other sought to understand perspectives on the…

This paper describes the use of both quantitative and qualitative methods to evaluate a project designed to define a state system of care for meeting the needs of people with concurrent disorders of mental illness and substance abuse. The evaluation was intended to develop a feedback system to provide program implementers with information about…

This qualitative study attempts to document outcomes of two statewide agricultural and rural leadership programs by determining the affects of the program on participants after they graduate. The study explored three levels of outcomes: individual, organizational and community using the EvaluLEAD framework developed by Grove, Kibel and Haas…

This report highlights the structure and analyses of states' initiatives in attaining the purposes of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act. The intent of the study was to take "snapshots" from key perspectives during 1988 of what states are doing to meet the intents of the act as spelled out in 14 purposes. Examples, or…

A pretest-posttest control group design was used to assess the leadership and problem-solving skills of 281 participants and 110 controls in a statewide community leadership development program. Quantitative and qualitative data demonstrate that the program has been a catalyst to influence leadership and problem-solving skills for community…

Two program evaluations are described to demonstrate two very different methodologies and consumer orientations. The first, a patient satisfaction survey commissioned by a medical center, used surveys as part of a larger continuous multipurpose evaluation process, and the second, the ZooGardens evaluation, was a one-time multimethod evaluation of…

Thoughtful, well-planned and systematic reviews of both instructional and noninstructional programs provide community colleges with a way of determining whether programs are meeting stated objectives and what standards of performance should be maintained. Programs that need improvement or should be eliminated can be identified, and fiscal…

This article describes the North Carolina Youth Empowerment Study (NCYES), a 3-year participatory evaluation of youth programs addressing tobacco use prevention. The study goals of NCYES were to (1) convene an advisory board comprised of lay youths and adults in a participatory research process, (2) document the characteristics of youth programs…

A qualitative analysis of information pertinent to alternative teacher certification in Texas is presented. Texas reform legislation passed in 1984 included a requirement for the State Board of Education to provide a route to teacher certification for those who were not graduates of teacher education programs. Those persons would be required to…

The first section of the document consists of the questionnaire/survey instrument completed by 51 administrators as part of a study designed to evaluate the quality and efficiency of early education programs for handicapped children (ages 3-5) in Louisiana in 1985-86. The frequency distributions of the responses received are shown on the…

A study sponsored by the Texas Education Agency was conducted to define qualitative and quantitative indicators of school district success. Efforts were focused on: viewpoints of administrators; quality indicators examined in other states; and a review of the literature. Results and recommendations are summarized into the following categories:…

This report describes results of focus group evaluation of the first year of Georgia's CrossRoads program, an alternative public school program to provide chronically disruptive, committed, and/or non-attending students (grades 6-12) with the social services and individualized instruction they require and to make the public schools more secure by…