The belief that randomized controlled trials provide a "gold standard" for evaluating therapeutic interventions is challenged. The need for research designs that produce valid and reliable information about interventions, which is clinically/educationally relevant and personally important, is discussed together with possibilities for broadening…

The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has endorsed a "Closing the Gap" agenda designed to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians. The agenda is distilled in a series of targets, one of which is the goal of halving the gap for Indigenous students in Year 12 attainment or equivalent (Certificate II or above) attainment rates by…

The new "Weighted Student Formula Yearbook 2009" from the Reason Foundation provides a simple framework for touting the successes of states and urban school districts that grant greater fiscal autonomy to schools. The report defines the Weighted Student Formula (WSF) reform extremely broadly, presenting a variety of reforms under the WSF umbrella.…

The subliminal psychodynamic activation method (SPA), used in testing psychoanalytic propositions, has been subject to recent criticisms regarding methodological weaknesses. A review of the literature relating to this method can be helpful in determining the validity of these criticisms and the potential usefulness of the SPA method in testing…

Because human beings are different and are necessarily subjective, and because evaluation always involves the human factor, many problems arise. The problems may be compounded in third world settings because they have been studied less, and are less understood, and because evaluators are often from outside the setting and therefore bring…

The author discusses various causes behind conflicting data collected from students in the evaluation of training programs. He covers such potential problems as statement misinterpretation, sample size, timing, and placement. (CH)

Data from a parent training outcome study demonstrated three types of subject reactivity noted by observers while collecting naturalistic observation data in family homes. Suggestions are made for future research, including the systematic collection of reactivity data during the course of observations and the examination of covariations between…

The third-year evaluation of the federally funded Washington, D.C. voucher program shows that low-income students offered vouchers in the first two years of the program had modestly higher reading scores after three years but showed no significant difference in mathematics. Students were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups, and the…

Treatment integrity (also referred to as "treatment fidelity," "intervention integrity," and "procedural reliability") is an important methodological concerning both research and practice because treatment integrity data are essential to making valid conclusions regarding treatment outcomes. Despite its relationship to validity, treatment…

The purpose of this paper is to summarize some of the author's logical and empirical reflections on the practice of using naturalistic techniques to conduct evaluations. The main assertion to be supported by these reflections is that naturalistic evaluation is possible and in some cases powerful. This assertion is supported through a review of (1)…

This is a critique of an article on the Cambridge Somerville Youth Study. It is noted that although the idea of a 30-year follow-up is good, the experimenter's variables are not strong enough to justify the conclusions drawn. (Author/AM)

Presents a number of evaluative schemata appropriate to appraising learning outcomes. (RB)

Ascribes difficulties associated with the use of ethnography in educational research to faulty or partial transmission of traits from one sociocultural system to another. Maintains that the appropriate use of ethnography demands that the whole trait complex be borrowed. Describes educational studies that used ethnographic methods. (Author/MJL)

In an effort to maintain internal validity while maximizing the generalizability of evaluation results, the theory-testing methodology that links program activities to outcomes (program theory) is proposed. To evaluate a program by explicating and testing the program theory is to perform evaluation as theory testing. (PN)

The study of the Functional Literacy Program in India encountered problems of opposition to evaluation, inappropriate respondents, and difficulties in contacting participants, which point to changes that should be made in the evaluation methods. (SK)