Performance-based scholarships have two main goals: (1) to give students more money for college; and (2) to provide incentives for academic progress. MDRC launched the Performance-Based Scholarship (PBS) Demonstration in 2008 to evaluate the effectiveness of these scholarships in a diverse set of states, institutions, and low-income student…

This article explores the statistical methodologies used in demonstration and effectiveness studies when the treatments are applied across multiple settings. The importance of evaluating and how to evaluate these types of studies are discussed. As an alternative to standard methodology, the authors of this article offer an empirical binomial…

To the data analyst, outliers can present both a problem and an opportunity. Stray or outlying observations can severly distort estimates of a distribution's central tendency (like the mean) and estimates of one variable's relationship to another (like the regression coefficient). These problems are frequent and serious, and as a result,…

The site variability issue for Direct Instruction Follow Through sites is examined from a variety of perspectives--meta-analysis of the Abt Associates' data, norm-referenced comparisons, and a longitudinal look at stability of effects. Much of the seemingly unexplained variability found in both the Abt report and the reports by M. Kennedy and E.…

The Compensatory Education Demonstration Projects are a three-year study of the effects of changes in ESEA Title I fund allocation at the intra-district level. Thirteen Local Education Agencies (LEAs) are cooperating in this research. During 1975-76 these school districts conducted their Title I programs under current federal Title I guidelines.…

This report describes and evaluates the first year of a demonstration project to develop an on-demand telecommunications network linking four remote hospitals in southwestern Ohio to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. The Telecommunications Information Network (TIN) is designed to allow health care professionals at those hospitals to…

This paper discusses evaluation of human service programs. Evaluation can be useful because: (1) evaluative data can be relevant to the basic goal of a demonstration to field test some strategy or technique; (2) process evaluation can help generate enthusiasm for self-improvement among staff; (3) evaluation can help build a communication network…

This interim report, part of a series of documents examining the feasibility of the longitudinal evaluation of Project Developmental Continuity (PDC), presents the results of an analysis of PDC impact at the Head Start level, using Spring 1977 data. PDC is a Head Start Demonstration Program aimed at providing educational and developmental…

A second quarterly report describes activities of the Syracuse Educational Policy Research Center's two-year analysis of educational satellites and telecommunications. Visits to Rocky Mountain, Appalachian and Alaskan sites are described. Activities of other nations are reviewed and summarized. Preliminary staff work and analysis for the final…

The authors invited teachers participating in a climate change education course to voluntarily demonstrate new environmental behaviors. They were interviewed and described the process of change they experienced. Facilitating professional development activities were participation in a community of change, construction of knowledge of climate…

These technical appendices are bound separately from the report "Strategies for Knowledge Use and School Improvement" which evaluates the National Institute of Education's Research and Development Utilization (RDU) program. Appendix A contains a preliminary report on the statistical quality of the quantitative data, focusing primarily on…

This interim report describes the development of program implementation and cost studies for Year II of the process 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. Specific areas focused…

Describes the research objectives, rationale, methodology, and findings of a model program developed at the Northwestern University Library, which examined whether online catalogs require instruction and, if so, how that instruction would be best delivered. (CLB)

This volume, part of the interim report on the National Home Start Evaluation, includes cost of the 16 Home Start projects and outcome data from the six summative sites. Findings and recommendations are presented on the intra-project cost-effectiveness of Home Start and the cost-effectiveness of Home Start as a Head Start option. Home Start, a…

The developmental paper, one of a series written as the Management Information System for Occupational Education (MISOE) was conceptualized, is a first attempt to picture the computer system necessary to carry out the project's goals. It describes the basic structure and the anticipated strategies of development of the computer system to be used.…