Collected information on the quality of needs assessments of the elderly from three sources. Found that the overall quality of the majority of needs assessments was so low as to provide little meaningful input to the planning process. Recommends that states focus on the improvement of needs assessment efforts. (Author)

Using the evaluation of day care programs at the state level as a basis, this document focuses on the methodology, logistics, politics, and benefits of state-wide efforts, particularly as these efforts relate to the impact of day care services on the children served. Since every evaluation effort must be individually tailored, and each state's day…

The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect funded a project to develop and field-test an evaluation procedure that could be used by interested states or communities to determine the extent of congruity between (1) their provisions for responding to the problems of child abuse and neglect, and (2) provisions prescribed in the Federal Standards…

This report discusses the findings of a study that attempted to investigate the participation rates of students with disabilities in the Oregon statewide testing program. The study joined individual student data from the Oregon Statewide Assessment Program and the Oregon Special Education Child Count to examine participation rates. The report…

Research on the implementation of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) included a sample of more than 20,000 people in 16 service delivery areas (SDAs). The random assignment model for the study produced estimates of the impact of the overall JTPA program in this sample of SDAs, plus separate impact estimates for individuals recommended for…

The purpose of this paper is to outline and explain the evaluation system used by the Rhode Island Department of Education to measure the effectiveness of compensatory education programs. An exposition of how relevant background, program and financial information is collected is presented. In addition, a delineation is made of the methods…

JOBS (Job Opportunities in the Business Sector) participation data from federal reports for December 1990 were reviewed for 9 of the 10 states of the South (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee). Kentucky information was not available at the time of review. Although federal…

A two-part survey of Ohio employers of JTP (Job Training Partnership) Ohio Title IIA participants asked 497 employers about: (1) their attitudes and opinions toward JTP Ohio and their participation in JTP programs (272 responses) and (2) employment and earning data for Title IIA participants who worked in the firm after ending their JTP training…

There is a continuing need in evaluation research for the establishment of a relationship between evaluation findings and decision making. A method is proposed for a particular situation: annual funding decisions for projects in a large grant program in vocational education. Outcome and predictive impact variables were ranked by three groups of…

One of a series of sixteen knowledge transformation papers, this paper deals with the nature and extent of use of evaluative data by administrators in vocational education. First, the following conditions which govern the use of the data are described: availability, reliability, credibility, utility, and consistency. Since the legitimacy of most…

A centralized evaluation unit within the California State Department of Education is responsible for evaluating programs administered by the state. Focusing on these educational program evaluations, the principal objectives of this study were to: (1) Describe the major components of the current program evaluation system; (2) Examine the planning…

JOBS (Job Opportunities in the Business Sector) implementation faces major challenges in every state, but two issues are of particular importance in the South: the impact of low welfare benefits and the impact of low educational levels among Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) recipients. The impact of low welfare benefits shows up…

A study was conducted to determine how parents perceive their involvement in planning the transition from school to work for their children with disabilities. A random sample of 240 parents in 9 school districts in Texas identified as having exemplary disabilities programs were contacted with a mailed survey, and 17 parents volunteered as a result…

A survey of respondents and nonrespondents to the Vocational Education Data System's follow-up survey of Massachusetts community college graduates was designed to measure response bias. The survey investigated employment patterns, wages, and degree of job relatedness. Results suggest original data was biased, if at all, toward underestimation, not…

The purpose of this study was to improve both statistical and judgmental methods for detecting potentially biased test items in an attempt to examine the agreement between the results obtained with these methods. If greater agreement between methods can be achieved, test items can be more effectively screened using judgmental methods prior to…