The politics of program evaluation are discussed from the personal perspective of the Director of the General Accounting Office's Program Evaluation and Methodology Division, which has produced reports for committees of the United States Congress. It is concluded that successful evaluations must be useful to others and must understand the…

This guide is intended to assist states and service delivery areas (SDAs) in addressing the new oversight responsibilities and opportunities stipulated by the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) with respect to planning a local evaluation. The following topics are covered in the individual chapters: the objectives and scope of JTPA evaluation…

This guide is intended to assist states and service delivery areas (SDAs) in addressing the new oversight responsibilities and opportunities stipulated by the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) with respect to planning a state-level evaluation. The following topics are covered in the individual chapters: the objectives and scope of JTPA…

In reviewing Herbert J. Klausmeier's academic career, this paper discusses four major areas of his contributions: (1) cognitive learning and development (CLD); (2) individual differences and related educational provisions; (3) educational research as a field of scientific inquiry; and (4) teacher education. CLD, Klausmeier' major contribution, was…

Research on sex differences in communication has produced mixed and contradictory results. An erroneous overlap exists between self reports of male-female behaviors, others' reports of perceived behaviors, and stereotyped projections based on social conditioning. The solution to this confusion in gender communication research may be triangulation,…

With the growing interest in comparing student achievement state by state, there is a need to develop better techniques for making such comparisons. Approaches available now, particularly the use of Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and American College Test (ACT) scores, have obvious shortcomings but nonetheless continue to be prominent because…

An aim of many students of human development is to penetrate behavioral variability in such a way as to reveal stable phenomena. This broad aim is challenged on numerous fronts when researchers study infant behavior, for students of infants are everywhere confronted with variability. But, in the context of research, variability of subjects'…

To control for interactions in learning research due to subjects' prior knowledge of the instructional material presented, an imaginary curriculum was presented with a computer assisted technique based on Carl Berieter's imaginary science of Xenograde systems. The curriculum consisted of a classification system for ten conceptual classes of…

A collaborative approach to educational research was used by an elementary school principal and a university researcher. The principal's daily activities were studied, as was the relationship of the roles she performed to instructional leadership. Data were collected mainly from participant observation and field notes. The principal performed six…

This paper overviews technical developments in data analysis procedures for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading data during 1984. The highlight of the reshaping of the NAEP data has been the scaling using item response theory (IRT). AT this point in the data analysis, an IRT-based scale appears appropriate for reading…

This study describes a method for providing easily understood information on the comparative instructional program effects of using multiple instructional products. The method was derived in the context of a national evaluation of three instructional product systems each of which was used to teach readiness and initial reading skills to…

This report describes cluster analysis methodology and illustrates its potential merits for educational research by describing a study designed to identify the natural subgroups existing among students beginning a secondary level remedial mathematics course. Cluster analysis forms groups of relatively homogeneous subjects represented in large data…

In this study, simulated and actual Air Force test data were used to compare the different procedures for equating mental tests: conventional (equipercentile and linear), Item Response Theory (IRT), and strong true-score theory (STST); data collection designs used were single-group, equivalent-groups, and anchor test. Equating transformations were…

The culmination of many years of implementing and analyzing the Bank Street model in Project Follow Through, this paper provides an extensive discussion of controversial and problematic issues related to the program and reviews what has been learned at Bank Street as a result of experience with Follow Through. Recommendations for program…

The study described in this report examined the direct economic impact of Brookdale Community College (BCC) on Monmouth County and the economic impact of the state community college system on New Jersey. Chapter 1 reviews the background and significance of economic impact studies; discusses the issue from general, New Jersey, and BCC perspectives;…