Reviews the conclusions drawn in articles in this special issue and comments on some of the major themes, including paradigm debates, context issues, the role of evaluators and evaluation, the performance measurement movement, and the impact of new technologies on evaluation. (SLD)

Discusses what it means to be a caring stakeholder and a participatory evaluator in the context of public and private domains using the example of a parent who is an evaluator of an afterschool program. Offers a perspective on the capacity of individual evaluators to deal with role strain. (SLD)

Using national survey data, examined how postsecondary institutions have approached undergraduate student assessment, the organizational and administrative patterns used to support assessment, and the institutional uses and impacts realized from assessment efforts. Detailed findings included that patterns of assessment approaches, organizational…

Presents an overview of the concepts and methods employed by outcome researchers evaluating intervention effectiveness in child welfare, and the problems associated with these methods that make their use by agencies impractical. Discusses concepts of statistical significance, effect size, and the meaningfulness of effects. Emphasizes the need for…

No matter which community people live in, they are bound to hear educators deliberating on topics such as quality assurance, data-driven decision making, and curriculum restructuring. Whether these discussions involve parents, teachers, administrators, school board members, or community leaders, two issues consistently emerge: the demand for…

This case study offers an in-depth look at how one school achieved change in its culture and in its approach to curriculum and instruction. The unit of analysis for this single case study is South Loop Elementary School (SLES) and the time period is from August 2002 to June of 2007, during which SLES students demonstrated sharply improved…

Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (2001), districts, schools, and educators are pressured to collect, analyze and report data annually regarding student performance. If high-stakes assessments are to be useful tools for educators in their classrooms, the data need to be applicable in conveying meaningful instructional information…

A research agenda has been at the core of "Sesame Street" and other Children's Television Workshop (CTW) educational projects since inception. This collection of presentations, from a symposium honoring the twentieth anniversary of Sesame Street's debut on national television, addresses research's role in the series, describing how…

This paper reports on the factors that characterize high-utilization evaluations. It is based on materials submitted to an American Educational Research Association (AERA) Division H competition for outstanding examples of evaluation utilization. The paper is organized into three sections. The first section outlines the background of the study:…

The majority of "The Standards for Evaluations of Programs, Projects, and Materials" (SEPPM) turns out to be helpful for Israeli evaluators in checking their working plans and reviewing evaluation studies. Nevertheless, the lack of overriding rationale or of theoretical anchors for the SEPPM creates difficulties in adapting them to local…

A study to determine whether five Pittsburgh hospitals have communication training programs and whether the programs have been or are currently being evaluated examined the following research questions: (1) whether they have ever used a communication training program (i.e., writing, interpersonal communication, public speaking, group leadership);…

The use of evaluation findings for program improvement and decision making was explored with the philosophy that different levels of information use occur--from altering perceptions of a program, to influencing major decisions about it. The strategy of deliberately involving potential information users such as clients, sponsors, and other…

This paper considers the manners in which three evaluation theorists may have altered their views regarding two major evaluation-related issues under consideration during the past 20 years. The theorists are Michael Scriven, Robert Stake, and Michael Patton, who are characterized as the philosopher-evaluator, responsive-evaluator, and…

This digest identifies the issues which must be addressed to make instruments and procedures for assessing school counselor performance efficient, fair, valid, and useful. (BH)

Ten functions of program theory are reviewed: contributing to social science knowledge; assisting policymakers, discriminating between theory failure and program failure, identifying the problem and target group, providing program implementation description, uncovering unintended effects, specifying intervening variables, improving formative use…