Head Start, the largest federally funded preschool program, provides comprehensive services to economically disadvantaged children and their families so that children can enter kindergarten ready to succeed in school. Performance standards include requirements for the intensity and quality of a broad range of services for children and families.…

Schools are in the midst of serious reform as they attempt to meet the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act and make adjustments that will positively impact students? academic lives. Yet, to accomplish these outcomes, schools need help, and state departments of education and local school districts are obligated to provide such assistance.…

Teacher education has the potential to serve as an important forum for overcoming barriers to the engagement of parents in their children?s education. Nevertheless, parent involvement has yet to hold a central role in the teacher education curriculum (Chavkin & Williams, 1987; de Acosta, 1996; Epstein & Dauber, 1991; Hiatt-Michael, 2001) and in…

In reexamining the implementation results from a true experiment in criminal justice, this analysis brackets true treatment effects by partitioning experimental and control groups into treated and untreated subgroups and by combining two independent data sources. A positive association was found between magnitude of experimental treatment…

The authors respond to criticism and analyses by Eva Rezmovic (TM 507 851) of their experimental design, particularly the suggested use of information on the amount of program service received by the control group comparable to the treatment group in their study of the relationship between program implementation levels and program outcomes. (CM)

Modules for training curriculum specialists to develop vocational education programs that respond to current needs and priorities were developed. They cover history and philosophy of vocational education as well as curriculum development, management, and evaluation. Field test results revealed that the modules increased knowledge of topics…

Discussion of the use of databases to improve students' thinking skills focuses on a database developed for teaching world geography to middle school and high school students. Research on developing information processing skills is discussed, a sample unit in the world geography project is presented, and results of field testing are described.…

A case study of the Arthritis Self-Care Project, a rural community intervention in Virginia, demonstrates the importance of process evaluation in determining the actual independent variable. Instances of reinvention uncovered by the study are explored, and suggestions are provided for dealing with the reinvention inevitable in field research. (TJH)

Discussion of how to teach novice teachers about practical theories and the reflective process of teaching focuses on a hypermedia software system called Chronicles of Teaching. The software features prespecified cases for analysis as well as the ability to enter and link new cases from teachers' classroom observations. (LRW)

Discussion of training needs in large libraries focuses on a field test conducted at Simmons College of a course developed by the Library of Congress for developing training skills called "Training the Trainer." Student and teacher evaluations of the curriculum and of the course materials are reported. (LRW)

Examined the validity of field tests of elementary students' upper body muscular strength and endurance. Field tests were found to be moderately valid measures of weight-relative muscular strength but not of absolute strength and muscular endurance. (SM)

Project "vita" (similar to the individual's professional vita) is proposed as a documentation technique for providing detailed but manageable descriptions of large research and development projects. Two field trials, projects to develop new evaluation methods and technology for storage and retrieval of full-text material, illustrate use…

Discusses teaching packages, which contain a variety of media resources, and how they can be evaluated through a surrogate teacher model. Evaluation strategies are reviewed, including content analysis, field tests, and pupil reports; the evaluation report is described; and use of this strategy in the United Kingdom is discussed. (Contains 30…

California is field-testing a model to help new teachers become competent professionals via planning, teaching, reflecting, and applying. Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment/California Formative Assessment & Support System for Teachers acknowledges that teachers learn good practices gradually through consulting with colleagues and…

Describes the results of the American Chemical Society Public Outreach Office's research program to measure the impact of the Kids & Chemistry program on both the children and the volunteer scientists. Highlights include objectives of the program, pretest research, focus group results, field tests, and pre- and posttest survey results.…