The general decline in public resources has encouraged government agencies to consolidate job functions, and the internal program evaluator is becoming a scarce commodity. This paper briefly describes a case study about the circumstances and implications of merging two formally antagonistic job roles: program administrator and program evaluator.…

Most Americans continue to place great faith in the social capacity of the public school system and to displace onto the schools responsibility to resolve some of our most urgent social issues. Israel was selected for observation in order to view American "educational messianism" from a distance. Cultural displacement as practiced in the…

This collection of nine papers was presented at a workshop on evaluation for excellence in education. "Why Evaluate?" by Madeline I. Hardy, contends that although reform is needed, evaluation must continue in order to measure educational change, bring improvement, and provide public accountability. In "Evaluation for Excellence in…

This exploration of community college financing applies selected constructs and theories from the field of economics to the question of public financing of two-year vocational/technical and general education programs. First, the criteria of efficiency and equity are explained in terms of their use by economists in judging the appropriateness of…

Developed to assist community college educators in analyzing their institution's financial performance in relationship to regional and statewide norms, this report presents financial data for fiscal year 1987-88 derived from a sample of 559 public community and junior colleges. Chapter 1 provides introductory information on the potential uses of…

A study was conducted at St. Louis Community College (SLCC) to obtain students' opinions of the Clarkson Education Center (CEC), a new off-campus educational center opened in summer, 1984. The study sought information on the students enrolled at CEC and how they differed from the SLCC student body as a whole; students' views of the quality of…

This paper describes the model and process developed by the Connecticut education department to assist schools in improving their effectiveness. The report offers an operational definition of the term "effectiveness" and summarizes the research that provides the conceptual base for the model. The characteristics selected from this…

The current success and acceptability of the Design for School Excellence (DSE) in the Cincinnati (Ohio) Public Schools is due largely to the seriousness in which the Board of Education and the Superintendent communicated with school employees and the entire community in planning the final outcome of this program. From the original suggestion of a…

Describes the context for current intense interest in educational effectiveness, presents basic steps in assessing institutional effectiveness (i.e., developing meaningful statements of institutional mission and goals, designing and implementing an institutional planning process, and identifying indicators of effectiveness), and discusses the…

Reports on a study into the awareness of conservation issues, and the enhancement thereof, as a result of visiting interpretive facilities in three South African nature reserves. Results indicate a statistically significant increase in awareness at all three reserves, although the levels of awareness were low. (TW)

Questions one of the assumed benefits of rapid growth in rural areas--the retention of rural youths through finding employment in their home communities. Finds no relationship between migration intentions of 970 high school seniors in rural Utah counties and rapid growth in local energy-related extractive employment. (LFL)

Utilizing ethnographic data, three dimensions of the experience of Black females attending community colleges are explored: (1) motivation for attending; (2) perceived behavior of women and men within the institution; (3) academic outcomes. Explanations are offered for characteristics of Black female culture and community colleges' failure to…

This study compares the expectations of educators, parents, and business leaders regarding computer uses in education with their conceptions of what is actually being done. Respondents saw microcomputer use for recordkeeping, determining instructional needs, and instruction as important potential uses but felt that more should be done. (MBR)

Reports on a study of the perceptions of 42 top- and middle-level administrators at 4 community colleges concerning the planning models and decision-making processes used at their college. Reports that both rural colleges relied on a consensus model, whereas the two urban colleges used autocracy and rational models respectively. (DMM)

Reports on a study of 110 Detroit (Michigan) domestic assault cases to determine whether victim preference about arrest of the assailant had an impact on police behavior and the recurrence of violence. Finds that mandatory arrest policies reduces police discretion and ignores victim preference. (CFR)