Access to scholarly information in the disciplines of education and medicine occurred primarily through the simultaneous development of two bibliographic databases. The Education Resource Information Center (ERIC) originated as a resource designed to be comprehensive in its inclusion of peer-reviewed and unpublished literature for the entire…

This article provides a critical review of the quality of 12 recent large federal program evaluations. The review focused on elements of the evaluation design, inclusion of evaluation expertise among those who have oversight of the evaluation, and evaluation dissemination. Overall, the process analyses from these evaluations provide good models…

Discusses problems that social scientists face when evaluating social programs, including cost, methodological concerns, and the development and application of new analytical techniques. (GC)

Twenty-five years of evaluation research are reviewed. Findings show that evaluations of social programs have been negative. Policymakers often blamed the evaluators when it was not clear why certain programs had failed. There is hope for a better working relationship as evaluators adopt better methods and social policy becomes more rational. (VM)

This paper examined the history and current issues in the evaluation of the education of Native students. Although public schools are the principal providers of services to Native students, most programs receive the greater part of their funding from the Federal Government and are subject to federal evaluation. Previous federal evaluation efforts…

Recent evaluations of manpower training claim that: (1) nonexperimental methods produce unreliable estimates of program impacts and (2) randomized experiments are necessary for reliability. National Supported Work Demonstration data are used to reexamine nonexperimental estimates of net program impact on posttraining earnings of high school…

As a preliminary to developing criteria to meet quality control requirements of the National Literacy Act of 1991, a study examined federal and state development of measures of program quality and performance standards for programs funded under the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education…

Reviews methodological weaknesses of studies that evaluate alternative settings and programs for long-term care of the elderly. Argues that research should provide better information and present options to clients, service providers, and policymakers, rather than studying whether one alternative is more effective than another. (Author/MJL)

Describes the practice of federal evaluation of research impact through three approaches: retrospective methods; qualitative methods, including peer review; and quantitative methods. Recommended areas for study in federal research impact assessment are suggested, including predictive reliability, comparative studies, time and cost estimates,…

This book presents the methods and findings of a critical review of the "Dictionary of Occupational Titles" (DOT) published by the United States Department of Labor. Following an introduction to the scope of the study in the first chapter, the book describes the study and its results in eight following chapters. Chapter 2 contains a…

Discusses a study conducted by the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) which examined the federally funded research system and the role of data for decision making in research policy. Highlights include data needs; research expenditures and personnel; the research process; measuring the outcomes of research; and the research evaluation process.…

This document is one of a series of reports which describe the experiences of six state agencies that are developing systems to affect the development and implementation of policy in the federal/state program for vocational rehabilitation. The state programs are developing model program evaluation/management information support units. This second…

This report concerns the governance of the structure of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), especially the law and the role of the Assessment Policy Committee (APC). The major sources of evidence include interviews with APC members and National Institute of Education (NIE) staff, minutes of APC meetings and historical documents…

Major changes have occurred in compensatory education evaluation practices and policies since the introduction of the Title I Evaluation and Reporting System (TIERS) and the Technical Assistance Centers (TAC) in 1976. This paper has three purposes: (1) to discuss these changes at the state and local levels; (2) to illustrate these changes with…

A comparative case study to evaluate the administration of Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title I programs was conducted in eight state departments of education and 32 school districts. Interviews were supplemented by review and analysis of documents and available data at each site. General findings included: (1) evaluation was…