Evaluations occur within a political decision-making mileau, where multiple stakeholders are contending for limited funds. Given the subjective basis of empirical information, different conclusions or recommendations about a program may result from different ideological, theoretical, and disciplinary perspectives. The logic behind the…

To obtain user evaluations of the information analysis products (IAPs) produced by the Educational Resources Information Center Clearinghouse on Tests, Measurement, and Evaluation (ERIC/TM), subjects were randomly drawn from a 1976 list of the clearinghouse's IAP orders. The sample was stratified by the title requested and the following…

This report describes a four-day institute funded by the U.S. Office of Education to increase the utilization of government publications by extending the knowledge of academic reference librarians about them. Librarians from 25 universities attended the institute. Discussion of the use of government publications was divided into three broad…

An open system model is applied to assess individual experience of community life. It was predicted that the racial composition of the community and the involvement of individuals in the community would affect perceptions of community culture (community strengths, deficits, support, and satisfaction) and community processes (problem solving,…

This document contains results of a study conducted to explore what states were doing or had done in the development or utilization of occupational information. Of particular interest in this study was the identification of methods, approaches or projects which are related to the developing or utilizing of occupational information and which are…

The usefulness of providing specific information and a progress/feedback mechanism to control utility usage in community-based, halfway houses for dependent-neglected and for delinquent adolescents was explored. The investigation was carried out in a random sample of 12 houses of an Arizona facility, divided into equivalent groups of three houses.…

This review takes a critical approach in summarizing and evaluating the methodology and scope of catalog use studies, with emphasis on the subject approach to card catalog searching. Subject access is defined in this report; however, the process of subject searching, described repeatedly in library literature, has been based upon common sense…

Whether initiated by law, regulation, or administrative direction, evaluations have political purposes. Improvement, the classic purpose of evaluation, is most faithfully observed when the importance, funding, and constituency of a program are small. If something is wrong, or if the program's existence is threatened, evaluation can become a weapon…

General guidelines exist for reporting and interpreting test scores, but there are short comings in the available technology, especially when applied to criterion-referenced tests. Concerns that have been expressed in the educational measurement literature address the uses of test scores, the manner of reporting scores, limited testing knowledge…

Much research in the area of person perception has dealt with the problem of how people organize information about other people, including how familiarity mediates the cognitive organization of person information. One multi-operational investigation found that information sets about familiar people, as opposed to unfamiliar people, resulted in the…

Evaluability assessment is a descriptive and analytic process intended to produce a reasoned basis for proceeding with an evaluation of use to both management and policymakers. It was jointly developed by the members of the program evaluation group of the Urban Institute between 1968 and 1978. The approach begins by obtaining management's…

A SURVEY WAS TAKEN OF THE AUDIENCE OF THE REGENTS EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION PROJECTS PROGRAMS. RESULTS INDICATED THAT "TIME FOR SCIENCE" WAS THE MOST POPULAR TELEVISION PROGRAM, WITH "TELL ME A STORY" IN SECOND PLACE. ONLY 19 PERCENT OF THE HIGH SCHOOLS USED THE PROGRAMS COMPARED TO 45 PERCENT OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. PAROCHIAL…

A STUDY WAS CONDUCTED TO IDENTIFY ENGLISH LANGUAGE PERIODICALS RELATING TO EDUCATION, TO ANALYZE THE COVERAGE AND TREATMENT OF THE PERIODICAL LITERATURE PERTINENT TO EDUCATION BY AVAILABLE ABSTRACTING AND INDEXING PUBLICATIONS, AND TO IDENTIFY ANY DEFICIENCIES IN THAT TREATMENT. A BASIC LIST OF 357 PERIODICALS, APPROXIMATELY 55 PER CENT OF WHICH…

Like other large organizations, universities often face the problem of distributing scarce resources among individuals. One such resource is university housing space. Students' reactions to a dormitory lottery in which each student had an equal chance of obtaining a room were studied. The lottery seemed fairest to students who shared the…

This paper presents a critical review of recent empirical and theoretical literature on information dissemination and utilization, incorporating key concepts from that body of literature into a model of effective knowledge transfer in gerontology. It assumes that the urgency and complexity of rapidly growing age-linked problems demand informed…