The Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) national evaluation seeks to assess both the implementation process and the results of the SS/HS initiative, exploring factors that have contributed to or detracted from grantee success. Each site is required to forge partnerships with representatives from education, mental health, juvenile justice, and…

Although the Delphi is widely used, research on certain methodological issues is somewhat limited. After a brief introduction to the strengths, limitations, and methodological challenges of the technique, we share our experiences (as well as problems encountered) with an electronic Delphi of educational program evaluation (EPE) in the Asia-Pacific…

In most cases, questions of cause and effect cannot be answered by social science methods. However, it is argued that evaluation should not be freed from dealing with missing causal links. It is possible to predict whether a causal question is likely to be measured or assessed. (SLD)

Reviews the state of the art in performance measures and assessment processes in program evaluation before the passage of the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), and discusses difficulties in fitting these practices into the GPRA format. Presents a simple logic model for evaluating research programs. (SLD)

Twelve articles discuss the advantages of theory-driven evaluation for: (1) identifying crucial issues; (2) integrating program implementation into evaluation; (3) diagnosing problems in program studies; (4) diagnosing problems in program structures; and (5) enhancing evaluation utilization. Topics include optimizing validity in program and…

Challenges encountered in developing and maintaining an extensive evaluation program at Ohio State University are retrospectively reconstructed. The setting, the history of program development, and the nature of the program are described as a backdrop for discussion of six issues with implications for program development. (SLD)

The rationale for a multistage approach to evaluating services demonstration programs is discussed. The approach takes into account limitations that are often found in such programs. The National Evaluation of Models for Linking Drug Abuse Treatment and Primary Care provides an example. (SLD)

Use-oriented approaches to evaluation have been challenged by contentions that the responsiveness of such evaluations undermines their technical quality. This discussion analyzes purported conflicts between these evaluation criteria of utility and accuracy by examining underlying assumptions related to evaluation's purpose and politics. (TJH)

Explores implications for evaluation practice of using five different perspectives on organizations, drawing on the four models of social program implementation developed by R. F. Elmore (1978). It is argued that evaluation will only really be effective when its focus, methods, and management reflect realistic assumptions about how organizations…

Methods of using simplified time series analysis (STSA) in evaluating clinical programs are discussed. STSA assists in addressing problems of attrition/augmentation of subjects in programs with changing populations. Combining individually calculated "C" statistics in a simple aggregate analysis of restraint usage by nursing home staff…

Some of the major issues related to planning evaluations of federal human services national demonstration programs are discussed. Barriers to conducting evaluations are discussed for the policy level and cross-site and within-site evaluation contexts. Among the proposed solutions is the use of an explicit programmatic developmental sequence. (SLD)

Why conclusions of many outcome evaluations do not stand up to scrutiny is discussed, drawing on examples from evaluations of drug abuse prevention programs. Factors that undermine these studies are largely the result of social-structural problems that influence the design and implementation of the research. (SLD)

A between method triangulation strategy was used to evaluate a process for long-range program planning. One study team conducted interviews and the other used a mail questionnaire. The resulting problems in coordination between teams are discussed. (Author/GDC)

Some of the conceptual, methodological, and logistical impediments to sound evaluations of jail-based drug-treatment programs are described. The focus is on a program in a large urban jurisdiction that illustrates difficulty in tracking clients and coordinating agency responses. Some suggestions are offered to help future researchers. (SLD)