This paper describes how a naturalistic inquirer can demonstrate rigor, or trustworthiness, and how an auditor might assess it. Looking at both inquiry products and processes, Part 1 of this paper describes how an audit may assess whether an inquiry's findings and conclusions are grounded in the raw data, and whether appropriate conventions were…

This paper discusses the design of a program by the Nashville (Tennessee) Center for Independent Living (CIL) to train consumers with disabilities in employing, training, supervising, and firing personal attendants. The program, supported by the Tennessee Developmental Disabilities (DD) Planning Council, provided an opportunity for program design…

This paper proposes an alternative means by which to produce improvement in the quality of professional convention programs. This method is one in which concern for professional relatedness supersedes a concern for individual competition. Dialogue as the first essential element in relatedness would encourage varied perspectives on research…

This paper presents a framework for monitoring implementation which defines a process for implementing new programs into organizations. The process requires a team of monitors who examine the adequacy of implementation plans and look at the effect of plan execution upon the organization, individual, and new program. Immediate feedback is provided…

Project Follow Through involved a diverse and major set of implementation problems: (1) The initial program mandate for an action program clashed with the later switch to an experimental focus; (2) The selection of curriculum rather than structural changes as the major intervention led to greater uncertainty regarding the practices to be…

The thesis of this paper is that the humanistic mode of inquiry is underemployed in evaluation studies and the future evaluation of Follow Through could profitably use humanistic approaches. The original Follow Through evaluation was based on the assumption that the world consists of a single system explainable by appropriate methods; the…

An attempt was made to test the assumption that a wide variety of institutions and agencies have the fiscal and managerial capability to house a programmatic research and development effort for education. To this end, interviews were conducted with the staff director or principal investigator of four Follow Through programs affiliated with member…

The innovators of a functional level testing program must make decisions in the context of situational factors. There are several decision points involving the important elements of a testing program. Establishing the need for functional level testing is the first decision to be made. A systematic examination of in-level test data will document…

Analyzes the experiences of three midsize Michigan school districts in implementing school desegregation programs under the Emergency School Aid Act (ESAA). Concludes that effective implementation requires clear goals and objectives, committed leadership, community support, and on-going political support. (FMW)

An innovative program developed and implemented at Montclair State College in New Jersey was designed to maximize students' writing potential within the framework of course requirements across the curriculum. Based on the assumption that the written expression of ideas and the critical thinking skills associated with writing are fundamental to all…

Planning the activities for an instructional development unit and evaluating how well it has performed requires a set of standards against which the unit can be compared. This paper proposes a set of standards developed from a variety of references and personal experiences with instructional development units from across the country. Thirty-eight…

In September of 1981, the Fatherhood Project at Bank Street College in New York City began field research investigating the ways in which America's major social institutions were responding to the call for greater male involvement in childrearing. The research effort attempted to identify innovations in five major institutional sectors: the law,…

An automated management information system was developed for planning and scheduling unit training in a U.S. Army infantry division. The primary goal of the project was to test the feasibility of the concept for a computer-based management information system. Specific objectives were to integrate information on personnel, training, and logistics…

This analysis of a research and development program conducted in the Brighton Polytechnic Department of Librarianship between 1975 and 1980 to explore the use of computer-related education in all areas of the librarianship curriculum focuses on the use of computer-based teaching packages integrated into the core curriculum, the nature and content…

This paper focuses on public school program development to correct the effects of segregation. It suggests concrete measures and plans for the Cleveland Leadership Academy, which is designed to enhance instruction and access. Cleveland City School District's Remedial Order is a court-approved blueprint for desegregation that mandated management…