The read-think-aloud method is a viable alternative to traditional one-to-one trials as an approach to formative evaluation. This procedure provides valuable information about the learner's cognitive processing while reading instructional text. The authors describe the method and offer suggestions for its use. (Author/CH)

Presents some recent developments in the evaluation of crime prevention and control programs, including the increased use of process evaluation models. Describes the nature, methods, and advantages of the idiographic (or single subject) model as used in social work. (JAC)

Formative evaluation of a prototype system can help developers to refine a product and define a market. A survey of adopters and non-adopters of a prototype videotex system, when coupled with machine-collected data about system usage, provided rich information for that purpose. (Author)

Describes the Philadelphia Public Schools' formative testing program, used to diagnose students' difficulties under mastery learning, especially in mathematics. Discusses in turn the classroom, school, and district aspects of the program and summarizes the program's essential features. A full-page chart outlining aids and hindrances to formative…

The conceptual model for evaluation of continuing nursing education discussed in this article has not yet been used extensively. The model appears to provide a useful framework for assessing the various types of evaluation currently being conducted in continuing nursing education. (SSH)

A developmental testing phase preceded validation testing of materials for the eighth grade students at Rock Creek School. The resulting program was able to help 90 percent of the students meet the course objects with 100 percent accuracy. (JY)

The guidelines suggested in this article have evolved from the development of nationally distributed instructional systems over the past seven years at SWRL, a National Institute of Education-sponsored educational research and development laboratory. (Author)

This article describes how providing effective and timely feedback gives new life to student assessment. Such feedback enables students to become better problem solvers and assessors of their own work. Providing effective and informative feedback is a large part of the assessment process: a means not an end that exists to improve learning and…

This report describes the implementation of the DC 21st Century Community Learning Center (DC 21st CCLC) After-School Program between October 1999 and May 2000, as well as the implications of current implementation for continued evaluation of the program. The report is also designed to inform Children and Youth Investment Partnership Investment…

The "CSE Program Evaluation Kit" is a series of nine books intended to assist people conducting program evaluations. This volume, the first in the kit, provides an overview of evaluation activities and a directory to the rest of the kit. Chapter 1 explicates the evaluation perspective that grounds the kit and describes the role of evaluation in…

This volume is the third in a projected six-volume series called "Agenda for Excellence at the Mid-Level." It describes a process that school administrators can use to conceptualize, plan, execute, and utilize the results of a school assessment, allowing them to take a snapshot of their school. It outlines a set of alternative procedures to be…

This document gives an overview of the "Calling the Roll" program, a two-state study-circle program. Study circles employ a public-engagement model that fosters dialogue among diverse individuals and groups. This report explores how participation in study circles affects the education policymaking process, and it examines the process of…

The action evaluation process at a mediation agency in Dayton, Ohio, that offers the services of trained volunteers is described. Action evaluation is an integrated research and intervention methodology for helping to define, promote, and assess success in an endeavor, while using evaluation as a bridge between research and practice in ways that…

Some related mathematical models are presented of the bargaining process between an employer, or a group of employers, and a labor union. Its novelty is in the formulation and use of "reactive functions" to explain the attitudes of the respective parties at each stage of the negotiation process and its consequent time-path. (Author)