A successful in-house management development program is characterized by staff involvement in planning, designing, and conducting the program. Top management support is critical, as are program diversity and relevancy, preparation and excellence, and evaluation and followup. (Author/MLF)

The Standards for Evaluations of Educational Programs, Projects, and Materials was published in 1980 by the McGraw-Hill Company. Three sections of this article discuss major issues related to the development of the Standards, its content and form, and the work planned for its application and future development. (Author/RL)

Strategies for increasing evaluation research leverage are reviewed. Alignment of evaluation research with regulatory bodies with authority to suspend public program expenditures is advocated. Several likely obstacles in the development of the regulatory evaluation model are anticipated and addressed. (Author/RL)

Program evaluation must be practiced by all members of all trades, disciplines, professions, or any other group of people whose efforts are aimed at making a difference. There is a role for "content free" evaluation methodology resources, but not for a professional "content free" evaluator. (RL)

Extension programs are traditionally human, personal, and responsive in character. The challenge is to design, implement, and evaluate programs that maintain their humanistic qualities while meeting increased accountability demands. (SK)

The author provides a checklist of questions for directors of programs undergoing external evaluation, concerning the evaluation effort (purpose, focus, criteria, outcome) and the evaluators (selection, experience, approach, meta-evaluation). (SK)

The use of a qualitative technique, the evaluator's journal, is proposed for supplementing quantitative methods of program evaluation. The journal's functions are described as a data storage instrument, biography of the program, and source of feedback. Five types, or approaches, illustrate its capability for accommodating unique needs. (GK)

A leader in the field of educational evaluation discusses her views on: (1) research utilization; (2) concepts of "knowledge creep" and "decision accretion"; (3) allegation that evaluation is used to legitimate a decision maker's previously determined course of action; and (4) the importance of validity and utility in evaluation. (Author/RL)

Proposes an ethical principle to guide evaluators of cooperative education programs: that all actions of the evaluator contribute to a competent, fair, and useful assessment. Applies this principle to each element of the evaluation process. (SK)

Suggests that meaningful evaluation requires a pre-evaluation design that assures evaluators and decision-makers that they know what they want from an evaluation and that they are able to get unambiguous and useful information, and that methodological and logistical problems of evaluation be considered at the outset. (Author/IRT)

The Judicial Evaluation Model (recently used by the Bureau for the Education of the Handicapped to investigate feasibility of implementing the Individual Education Program component of PL 94-142) is described in terms of its application in the State of New Jersey. Limitations and potentials are discussed. (JC)

The most desirable outcome of any patient education program is a patient who is aware of medical alternatives and their potential effects and who chooses voluntarily and intelligently whether or not to follow medical advice. (MM)

The evaluation of the 1984-95 occupational employment projections can determine the reliability of information based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) track record and enable BLS to improve the accuracy of its subsequent projections. (JOW)

Contends that D.L. Kirkpatrick's model for evaluating training courses can be adapted to evaluating products and services. Outlines how this can be done. States that measuring client and user satisfaction and performance can provide proof of technical communication's quality and value. (PA)

Describes a partnership of youth and adults in Ontario, Canada in the generative process of participatory evaluation as youth and adults jointly produced a conference as a participatory evaluation and worked as democratic equals toward a common goal. (SLD)