The Even Start-Padres y Progreso program is a nationally funded program designed to prepare young children to enter school by not only offering early childhood education, but also assisting their families with adult literacy and English as a Second Language (ESL), parenting-skills training, and employment-skills training. An evaluation of the…

Each year, a follow-up study is conducted to gather data on the activities and perceptions of students approximately six months after their graduation from Wisconsin's Technical Colleges (WTC). Specifically, the survey seeks to identify the current activities of WTC graduates, determine the extent to which current activities are related to the…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Nutrition Education and Training Program (NET) provides nutrition information and instructional resources for children, parents, educators, and food service personnel. This report describes the evaluation methods of the NET Program in Texas in fiscal year 1992, describes evaluation results, and offers…

These three documents (final performance report, evaluation report, methodology guide) are products of a project through which the Career Advancement Center provided workplace literacy services to two industries in Greenville, South Carolina. The final performance report discusses achievement of objectives, specifically employee assessment,…

This digest contains summaries of accreditation standards relating to the personnel preparation programs in special education and related services in 29 states and the District of Columbia that responded to a request for materials. Each state's information is presented within seven categories: (1) eligibility of programs for accreditation; (2)…

The annual evaluation of a Texas regional resource center is presented. The center provides training and technical assistance for school district personnel participating in programs for limited English proficient (LEP) students. Federally funded and housed in the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, it serves 800 school districts with a…

To develop an effective method for experienced, full-time faculty to mentor new, part-time faculty, Cuyahoga Community College (CCC), in Ohio, initiated the 3-year Educator's Peer Instructional Consulting (EPIC) project in September 1987. EPIC was designed to allow new faculty to quickly learn essential information about the college, their…

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education uses state-developed, criterion-referenced tests for the purpose of evaluating programs funded by Chapter 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The agency's efforts to obtain approval from the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) to use state norms for evaluation purposes are…

The Australian Language Levels (ALL) Project offers a coherent model for elementary and secondary language curriculum design. Book 4 of the four-volume series discusses aspects of curriculum change and inservice teacher education, emphasizing the fact that curriculum and staff development are ongoing processes. A section on implementing curriculum…

Literacy programs in the United States have taken either a preventive approach for children or a remediation approach for adults. A new approach, family literacy, involves both parents and children in literacy acquisition. The National Center for Family Literacy provides training and assistance to family literacy programs through a process called…

This paper reports on the findings of an evaluation of Project Giant Step, a program funded by New York City to provide comprehensive services to all 4-year-olds in the city, beginning with low-income children who are unserved by existing programs. Both the costs and effects of Project Giant Step are examined. Effects of the program on children…

Lessons from the 18-year institutional experience of Alverno College in Milwaukee (Wisconsin) with assessment for the improvement and verification of student learning are summarized. Principles are described that should inform a national assessment system with the dual purposes of improvement and accountability by incorporating the following key…

Six cases are studied to give some idea of the range of performance assessments in use in the United States. Contrast and comparison are made possible through the study of the following: (1) the South Brunswick (New Jersey) Public Schools Observational Portfolio for kindergarten through grade 12; (2) the Arizona Student Assessment Program (not yet…

The SUCCESS program of the Des Moines (Iowa) public schools serves children, youth, and families experiencing conditions that put them at risk of not achieving the goals of their educational programs or thriving in their families or communities. SUCCESS integrates community resources within the school system in family resource centers. The…

Programs designed collaboratively between school systems and schools of education provide a context for facilitating the integration of preservice classroom instruction with experience in the field, as well as making university classroom instruction more sensitive to current issues in public education. This paper describes an emerging model…