This descriptive study involving interviews with school district superintendents assesses the congruence to a School Facilities Construction Model by school districts participating in the 1983 to 1990 round of Ohio School Building Assistance Projects. Chapter 1 introduces a general background on the need for studying the amount of congruence to a…

Although targeted explicitly at changing adult behaviors and outcomes, welfare reform has direct implications for children. This guidebook details the results of the Project on State-Level Child Outcomes, designed to assist states in measuring child outcomes in the context of welfare reform programs. The guidebook is presented in three sections.…

Articles in this special issue suggest improvements in longitudinal program evaluation to meet the challenges of evaluation of human services programs. Contributions describe innovations in design, methods, data analysis, utilization, and interpretation of the findings of longitudinal studies. (SLD)

Examined the utility of general growth mixture modeling (GGMM) for evaluating early childhood education programs. Initially, growth mixture modeling procedures identified two growth patterns among Head Start children. However, GGMM procedures found that children with at least 2 years program participation did not have faster achievement growth…

Provides an overview of the area of quantitative research in chemical education, which involves the same components that comprise chemical research: (1) a question or hypothesis; (2) research design; (3) data collection and analysis; and (4) interpretation of results. Includes questions of interest to chemical educators; areas of quantitative…

This article reviews elements of a well-designed treatment study and evaluates the state of knowledge about comprehensive treatment programs for children with autism. Several suggestions are made for improving future studies, including more rigorous designs, searching for active ingredients of treatment programs, and measuring change. (Contains…

Investigates the demographics of journalism and mass communications journal reviewers. Finds that reviewers are a largely homogeneous group composed predominantly of White males in their 40s with doctorates from institutions that emphasize scholarly publication. (SR)

Compares the responses of administrators, teachers, parents, and students to a questionnaire about purposes, communication qualities, effects, and philosophy of student evaluations. Suggests evaluations can serve as positive educational motivators that reward student efforts and enhance student learning, while avoiding critical, negative,…

Considers perceptions of novice and experienced teachers towards models of supervision commonly used in public schools. Suggests using that form of supervision considered most effective by experienced teachers produces the greatest improvement in teaching. Generally, adopting supervisory models considered reliable and appropriate by teachers is…

Advantages of internal evaluation are illustrated through an in-house study of the familiarity of clinicians at a social service agency with the Tarasoff decision about responsibility concerning potentially dangerous clients. Advantages include multiple alliances among staff and researchers, increased cooperation, and an improved likelihood of the…

Recent funding changes in Great Britain have shifted the purpose of evaluation to serve the ends of government. Government now has the power to define and prioritize key categories in education and provide a mechanism for control. Claims that evaluation is now little more than consultancy and monitoring and is not research-based evaluation. (NL)

Six quantitative reviews of the research on student ratings of instructional effectiveness are examined. The disparate conclusions of the reviews are explained by comparing the syntheses at each of five steps in a meta-analysis: specifying inclusion criteria; locating studies; coding study features; calculating study outcomes; and data analysis.…

Presents results from the first part of a two-part study of the characteristics of research conducted in the area of developmental education. Identifies the areas investigated, types of research being conducted, and the effectiveness of the research. Indicates that serious flaws were found in 63% of the studies reviewed. Discusses four factors…

Discusses the applications of summative rating scales to assess frequency of language learning strategy use, describing the most widely employed strategy scale, the English-as-a-Second-Language/English-as-a-Foreign-Language version of the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL). Studies of strategy use frequencies and factor analytic…

This paper examined the assessment of second-language proficiency in 157 research articles published in 5 language journals from 1988 through 1992, finding 4 major conventions for the assessment of language proficiency: (1) impressionistic judgment; (2) institutional status; (3) in-house measures; and (4) standardized test scores. (64 references)…