Addressed to professionals involved in program evaluation, this working paper covers various aspects of evaluation planning, including the following: planning as a sociotechnical process, steps in evaluation planning, program planning and implementation versus evaluation planning and implementation, the literacy system and its subsystems, and some…

Experiences and events are presented on determining a successful way of conducting an education needs assessment on the Jicarilla Apache reservation in Dulce, New Mexico, using the following process: (1) identifying needs to devise questions on expressed concerns; (2) analyzing data; and (3) developing a program to correct the concern. The…

The content of the Public-Use Data Tapes of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is summarized and descriptions of recent research using the database are provided. Since 1969, NAEP has surveyed 9-, 13-, and 17-year-old students and occasionally young adults in assessments of achievement in art, career and occupational…

This investigation employed an in-basket simulation to assess the effect of provisional analysis on the use of evaluation data by program administrators in making program decisions. Sixty-five volunteers from graduate education courses and 52 volunteers from undergraduate educational psychology classes at Western Kentucky University were randomly…

One of the original premises of the Documentation and Technical Assistance Project (DTA) was that the ideal school organization manifests self renewal and adaptability. This conception of organization has been sharpened through the years by the Oakland, California, branch of the DTA. In this paper, the aspects of self renewal and adaptability…

This paper discusses evaluation of human service programs. Evaluation can be useful because: (1) evaluative data can be relevant to the basic goal of a demonstration to field test some strategy or technique; (2) process evaluation can help generate enthusiasm for self-improvement among staff; (3) evaluation can help build a communication network…

The impact of professional jargon and data-based statements in evaluation reports on audience responses to an evaluation report and an evaluator's recommendations was examined. Subjects read one of four evaluation reports about testing and grading procedures in a school program. The reports varied in the amount of jargon and data used to justify…

California state officials vary in their perceptions of the functions and uses of state Department of Education evaluations, according to state legislators, legislative staff members, department administrators, and outside evaluators whose opinions were gathered through interviews and at a 1981 symposium. Highlighted here are the legislators'…

Teacher educators are in a state of near paralysis concerning their program evaluations. This paralysis comes from adopting wholesale a dysfunctional evaluative point of view from the dominant educational research establishment. There is a history of overestimating the current relevance of experimental behavioral science models for the gathering…

Focusing on the effects that research on the Taiwan family planning program has had on social change, both in the intergration of research findings into national action programs and in the dissemination of these ideas to other Asian countries, this report discusses five individual case studies and presents a summary and analysis of the research…

While muckrakers such as Upton Sinclair, Ernest Poole, Thomas Lawson, and others chose individual approaches for their investigative reporting to the public, they shared some common assumptions about mass communication that influenced the operative impact of their views. In addition to adhering to a simplistic belief in the power of bare facts,…

This booklet is for individuals who are interested in learning more about the process of problem-solving. It provides information and sample tools, charts, and suggestions to assist in problem-solving efforts. The first section is about the nature of the problem-solving process. Then the five steps of problem-solving--(1) focusing on the problem,…

This report presents the results of an informal survey which focused upon the manner in which urban school systems are organized to perform the functions of utilization and dissemination of educational innovations. The systems of each of twenty-eight urban districts surveyed are briefly described. Results presented indicate that (1) all…

Five different program evaluations were described to indicate those qualities which make an evaluation effective or not effective. Evaluation effectiveness was defined as impact on decision making or long-term policy formation, and influence upon a variety of audiences. Robert D. Matz described the First Chance Project, and concluded that the…

The objective of this paper is to consider alternative frameworks for the description and analysis of linking agents' roles and functions and to explore the implications of the frameworks for linkage training and support. Section 1 draws attention to the variety of terms and contexts used in the literature on educational knowledge utilization and…