Museums often evaluate various aspects of their audiences' experiences, be it what they learn from a program or how they react to an exhibition. Each museum program or exhibition has its own set of goals, which can drive what an evaluator studies and how an evaluation evolves. When designing an evaluation, data collection methods are purposefully…

This article describes the lessons learned during the implementation of a new master's degree program for K-8 teachers. The program's goal was to increase student inquiry and sense making in mathematics and science classrooms. Each of the twenty-four teacher participants reported strong satisfaction with the program, and a variety of measures…

This paper describes the analysis of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Math and Science Partnership (MSP) program's January 2008 Learning Network Conference (LNC). This study focuses on the methodologies used by the MSP community to generate evidence and seeks to understand topics of interest to the 320 LNC participants. The data set for this…

An approach to evaluation initiated by the Kellogg Foundation called cluster evaluation (not to be confused with cluster sampling) is described. Cluster evaluation provides a skilled, credible evaluator to work with a cluster of projects to assure that useful and defensible information is obtained for program evaluation. (SLD)

The final versions of nationally developed standards for science education have recently been published for use by practitioners, and it is obvious that these standards will have some influence on how science education is conducted. The effects of the standards on teaching and curriculum development can be anticipated, but their effects on…

Argues that science educators often face the problem of abnormal distributions when conducting large-scale assessments or evaluating national curriculum projects that require complex sampling plans. Examines the precision of science test scores. (DDR)

The data in this report were collected as part of a study that involved all teacher education graduates at the University of Iowa prior to 1970. The information from this study is considered baseline data for an evaluation of the Iowa-UPSTEP program (Undergraduate Pre-Service Teacher Education Program), which was begun in 1969 as a proposed…

This report reviews 5 years of work involving the Parent Empowerment Project (PEP) and also examines the results of a study that was undertaken to plot the changes in school performance of at-risk children and youth that have occurred since their parents became involved with PEP. It includes: (1) a summary of the demographics and characteristics…