An innovative system-building initiative known as the STEM Learning Ecosystems Community of Practice (SLECoP) is transforming U.S. STEM education through cross-sector partnerships between schools, afterschool and summer programs, libraries, museums, and businesses, among others. Although logic models exist to describe how SLEs can make positive…

We review the value of cost-effectiveness analysis for evaluation and decision making with respect to educational programs and discuss its application to early reading interventions. We describe the conditions for a rigorous cost-effectiveness analysis and illustrate the challenges of applying the method in practice, providing examples of programs…

Randomized controlled trials are the gold standard in research but may not fully explain or predict outcome variations in community-based interventions. Demonstrating efficacy of externally driven programs in well-controlled environments may not translate to community-based implementation where resources and priorities vary. A bottom-up evaluation…

Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting legislation permits states to fund "promising practices"--with the understanding that these models will have a rigorous evaluation component. This article describes an innovative, low cost paraprofessional home visiting model developed in Pennsylvania by the Maternity Care Coalition. In…

Making Connections was the Annie E. Casey Foundation's signature place-based, community-change initiative of the 2000s. It sought to build on previous work and launch an effort focused firmly on the framework of family strengthening. The Foundation started Making Connections in 22 places, focusing eventually on first 10, then seven sites. It…

Introduction: Mentoring is a central component of professional development. Evaluation of "successful" mentoring programs, however, has been limited and mainly focused on measures of satisfaction with the relationship. In today's environment, mentoring programs must produce tangible outcomes to demonstrate success. To address this issue,…

Response to intervention (RTI) can be both a system for providing early interventions to struggling students and a special education diagnostic tool for evaluating and identifying students with specific learning disabilities. Contributing to the very limited literature on state-level approaches, this report describes how nine states define and…

Suggests ways in which states that are administering a Title IV-E independent-living program may generate program and evaluation data to meet requirements of a federal program report. Presents two examples of current evaluations of independent-living programs. (RJC)

The report is an accounting of activities of the Vocational Development Study (VDS) project during the three-year funding period of July 1971 to July 1974. The longitudinal study, planned to cover a 10-year span, was begun in the fall of 1968. The project was developed to identify the effects of the high school experience on youth in vocational…

In the fall of 2007, Education Resource Strategies (ERS) was invited by Philadelphia's School Reform Commission to conduct a Strategic Professional Development Review for the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). ERS is a nonprofit organization that is nationally recognized for its extensive work in partnering with urban school districts to make…

The School Library Media Services Division of the Pennsylvania Department of Education administered the operation of AdvancE as Pennsylvania's adult education clearinghouse. The goal of the project was to provide Pennsylvania's adult educators with prompt access to information and resources to help them implement the most effective administrative…

Highlights of the findings of eleven program evaluation and planning committees within the division of special education in Pennsylvania and options in the future implementation of each program area are summarized. The committee had the following purposes: (1) to revise the structure of long range and short range planning within the division of…

Since the inception of the School-to-Work Project in 1998, networks members have increasingly viewed credible evidence as critical to both their approaches to program improvement and their strategies for winning and sustaining support and resources. This issue brief: (1) Describes the activities Network members have pursued together during…

This analysis of the impact of a result demonstration educational program was made in an effort to achieve the following goals: (1) identification of the objectives of the educational program; (2) description of the program; (3) assessment of awareness of the program by target clientele; (4) measurement of the amount of change that takes place;…

This report describes an interactive cable television system to deliver social services to senior citizens in Reading, Pennsylvania. The first section examines the process through which the interactive system was established. The technological components of the system are described in the second section. This is followed by a brief review of the…