Evaluation practice has grown in leaps and bounds in recent years. In contrast, the most recent survey data suggest that there has been a sharp decline in the number and strength of preservice evaluation training programs in the United States. In an effort to further understand this curious trend, an alternative methodology was used to examine the…

Given that the development of treatment fidelity assessment protocol is an integral but too frequently ignored aspect of clinical trials for psychological treatments, the Intensive Mental Health Program (IMHP) sought to build fidelity activities into training, program evaluation, and clinical recordkeeping from the outset of a 3 year study period.…

This article presents a plenary address wherein the author talks about cultural clashes, about what happens when evaluation meets politics. In her address, the author talks about the kinds of clashes that occur on a regular basis between evaluative independence and the political culture it challenges, along with possible ways to predict, parry, or…

The nature and role of developmental education classes are under tremendous scrutiny across the nation today. Specifically, students are entering community college and four-year institutions of higher education unprepared to understand and apply much of the reading material presented to them in college-level classes. This article describes the…

Background/Context: Arizona's most recent English Language Learner (ELL) legislation, starting in the school year 2008-2009, requires all such students be educated through a specific Structured English Immersion (SEI) model: the 4-hour English Language Development (ELD) block. The basic premise behind this particular model is that ELL students…

Students in science and engineering (S&E) are preparing for careers in fields where international partnerships are increasingly important to advancing knowledge and discoveries. It has been over a decade since the National Science Board (NSB) highlighted the importance of international collaboration and called for increased government…

A study of healthy marriages was conducted and five keys were found to exist in all of them: spirituality, intimacy, conflict resolution, communication and financial management. The author examined secular and spiritual literature and found these keys were prevalent in both. Military couples experience many stressors that are not found in…

The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) is the nation's oldest and largest urban school choice program, offering private-school scholarships to low-income students in the city of Milwaukee since 1990. In the early years of the program, voucher schools were not required to test their students, though many of them did so using nationally normed…

As part of the evaluation of the Strategic School Funding for Results (SSFR) project (called Budgeting for Student Success, or BSA, in Los Angeles Unified School District), the American Institutes for Research (AIR) conducted surveys of principals, teachers, and members of School Site Councils (SSCs) to gather information on their attitudes and…

The Lifelong Learning Imperative (LLI) project was initiated to assess current practices in lifelong learning for engineering professionals, reexamine the underlying assumptions behind those practices, and outline strategies for addressing unmet needs. The LLI project brought together leaders of U.S. industry, academia, government, and…

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of students and faculty involved in a living-learning first-year experience program at a small, liberal arts institution about developing skills for life-long learning including critical thinking, written communication, and reflection and engagement across disciplines. The researcher…

The purpose of this study was to conduct a formative program evaluation of a school district's multisensory reading initiative. The mixed methods study involved semi-structured interviews, online survey, focus groups, document review, and analysis of extant special education student reading achievement data. Participants included elementary…

The purpose of this study was threefold: (a) to describe the impact the SLS courses had on the retention and success rates of students who were taking developmental English courses at FSCJ-Kent Campus, (b) to explain how students taking developmental English felt the SLS courses impacted them, and (c) to find out what elements of the SLS program…

In 2006, six community and technical colleges in Washington State joined the innovative national reform initiative called Achieving the Dream (ATD). This report describes the progress each college made in implementing ATD's "culture of evidence" principles for institutional improvement, examines strategies implemented by the colleges to…

MDRC is conducting the Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ Demonstration and Evaluation Project under a contract with the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). As part of the multisite Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ Demonstration and Evaluation Project, MDRC,…