A case study approach was used to evaluate the statewide reading improvement project in Louisiana called Special Plan Upgrading Reading (SPUR). SPUR emphasized a change agent approach by providing Technical Assistants and small stipends (approximately $5,000) to participating school districts. During the first two years of the evaluation,…

Developed as a guide for improving current procedures or initiating procedures to evaluate vocational education programs in correctional institutions, this handbook provides an introduction to and understanding of the evaluation process through the use of a case study, flowcharts, check lists, descriptions of helpful resources, and examples of…

This volume serves as an introduction to and a summary report of the project and provides a description of the context, the rationale, and the objectives of the Studies. The first five chapters describe the purposes to be served by the study, the preparations necessary to serve those purposes, the directions taken and the decisions made to…

To help students through the difficult process of transfer, many institutions nationwide have developed Transfer Centers, physical locations where students can come to learn more about the transfer process. The mission of Transfer Centers is to promote and support community college students who are seeking to transfer to four-year institutions.…

The Second International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM2009) was held at the University of Cordoba, Spain, on July 1-3, 2009. EDM brings together researchers from computer science, education, psychology, psychometrics, and statistics to analyze large data sets to answer educational research questions. The increase in instrumented…

Participatory research is an approach that calls for a democratic interaction between the researcher and those among whom the research is conducted. While this approach has been implemented with both individuals and groups in a wide variety of settings such as geographic communities, workplace situations, adult learning groups, community issue…

This guide, one of four, is a product of the Project on Social Architecture in Education, initiated to find out what it takes to develop a program and a working social system for a new school. The project began with interviews with school planners and consultants, then moved to the study of six new innovative public schools for a two-and-a-half…

A University of Minnesota pilot study of administrator evaluation had administrators (n=46) help define the leadership behaviors and outcomes on which they would be evaluated, then gain feedback from peers whose opinion they valued. The feedback process was computerized. Participants perceived the method as fair, valid, reliable, and personally…

Texas' and Oregon's experiences in building a performance measurement and reporting information system (PMRIS) for their adult literacy programs were compared. The Oregon PMRIS development effort was a multiyear project involving 10 programs and calling for collection/reporting of data regarding 10 of 272 benchmarks recommended by the Oregon…

Evaluation of both the academic department or unit and the individual academic staff member is addressed. Documents relevant to the reviewing process and a variety of instruments for collecting evaluative information are included, along with 10 case studies and exercises that offer advice on effective procedures. Departmental review is defined as…

These 8 case studies are part of a series of documents on the evaluation of Project Developmental Continuity (PDC), a Head Start demonstration program aimed at providing educational and developmental continuity between children's Head Start and primary school experiences. Each case study reviews the planning year at a PDC demonstration site in one…

These 7 case studies are part of a series of documents on the evaluation of Project Developmental Continuity (PDC), a Head Start demonstration program aimed at providing educational and developmental continuity between children's Head Start and primary school experiences. Each case study reviews the planning year at a PDC demonstration site in one…

A project that obtained secondary data images on all nonpublic schools, secular and sectarian, in the United States is described. Original data were gathered for five in-depth case studies. This project was limited to an analysis of nonpublic schools through grade 12; it included several subdivisions. Studies on nonpublic schools were conducted in…

This document is intended to assist individuals responsible for managing staff development in adult and community learning (ACL) in the United Kingdom. The guide presents step-by-step advice for designing and implementing an approach based on the belief that staff development should do the following things: (1) relate holistically to the…

In March 2000, thirteen grants were awarded as part of the Individual Training Account/Eligible Training Provider (ITA/ETP) Demonstration. In summer and fall of 2000, the grant recipients' activities were subjected to an interim evaluation. Site visits were made to each grantee to determine what ITA policies and practices were being formulated,…