Essays in this collection explore what a narrative perspective can mean for the practice of program evaluation. Narratives illuminate the value and meaning of a program or policy and can indicate the actions that need to be taken to improve it or to prevent failures in the future. The essays are: (1) "Introduction: Narrative Perspectives on…

In 1998, the State of Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services assumed responsibility for the Milwaukee County child welfare system. The Wisconsin Council on Children and Families has undertaken a multi-year, qualitative research project to monitor the state takeover. The three questions that this project seeks to answer are: (1) What…

North Carolina's Schools Attuned program offers teachers an instructional approach that helps increase students' classroom success by assessing strengths and weaknesses that influence learning. Approximately 400 teachers participated in the program's first year, 1998-1999, and an additional 400 began training in 1999-2000. Teams of teachers from a…

This report reviews the mathematics program of Miami-Dade public schools in grades 5 through 8 and provides recommendations about how technology might be used to improve learning opportunities for students. The main conclusion of the study and the conceptual foundation for all the conclusions and recommendations is that technology use must be…

The Cannabis Youth Treatment (CYT) study is a multi-site randomized field experiment examining five outpatient treatment protocols for adolescents who abuse or are dependent on marijuana. The purpose of the CYT project is twofold: (a) to test the relative clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of five promising interventions targeted at…

Since the inception of the CAL program in 1990, JP Morgan Chase, Public Education Network, and New Visions for Public Schools have provided grantees with various opportunities to share the knowledge they have gained, as well as the tools and methods they have developed during the creative active learning process. Although PEN and New Visions…

To assist community development administrators, the article considers the problems of program evaluation: what kind of evaluation is needed; for whom is it needed; who shall do it; what should it cost; and what are the implications of its results. (AG)

The students in class today will be the adult citizens of the community tomorrow. A teacher established in a community can evaluate his efforts by looking at former students. A new teacher can use the suggestions offered here to ensure that his work will withstand the test of accountability. (EA)

Suggestions are offered for planning and communicating what is done in summer agricultural programs through an outline format that is divided into four stages: plan, execute, report, and revise. (EA)

The first demonstration of the voucher concept took place at Alum Rock Union School District in San Jose, California. Describes the School District's first year experience with vouchers. (JF)

A demonstration program of a system coordinating the wide variety of services provided for neglected and abused children in a metropolitan area has produced many gains in the handling of such cases: notably, avoidance of institutionalization. (Author/CS)

This article is an overview of current thinking in evaluation. The evaluation frameworks of Scriven, Provus, Stake, Guba, and Stufflebeam are discussed. (HD)

Evaluates IPI, an instructional system designed to individualize the teaching of subject content. (Author)

If school psychology is to make a significant impact on educational processes in the years ahead, it must develop a theoretical base from which systematic intervention and evaluation procedures can be established. The model presented in this paper is an effort to provide one base from which such a theory could evolve. (Author)