This article provides a brief overview of general outcome measurement and its potential for assessment of continuous progress in early childhood education. It describes an eight-step research and development process for the generating and evaluating of individual growth and development indicators. These indicators are adaptable across children,…

A consideration of ethics is necessary in the development of guidelines for conducting and reporting research. A brief description of the history of ethical guidelines in research is presented followed by suggestions for development of ethical guidelines, both those that can be legislated and those that cannot. (SI)

A committee of major education partners in Saskatchewan developed a curriculum evaluation program to monitor the effectiveness of new provincial curricula. The program recommends gathering data from students, teachers, and school administrators. Assessment strategies include qualitative and quantitative information collected in a variety of ways.…

Provides an overview of the importance of user-based evaluations of networked information services; reviews data collection techniques that provide a user perspective when assessing networked information services, including focus groups, user logs, interviews, observation, and surveys; and offers practical suggestions and guidelines for using such…

Describes a quick, economical community needs assessment conducted by Gainesville College, focusing on methodology and use of findings. Explains respondent selection and data collection methods for three groups: community leaders, who were interviewed in small groups using a community reconnaissance method; high school principals; and counselors,…

Describes steps taken in developing an evaluation system for distance teaching at the Open Junior High School system in Indonesia. Reviews data collection techniques, and discusses advantages and disadvantages of evaluation studies. Presents a historical background of the system, and lists the system's strengths and weaknesses discovered via…

This article examines the role of assessment in developing Individual Family Service Plans (IFSP) under Part H of the Education of the Handicapped Act. Emphasis is on determining eligibility, collecting assessment data for describing developmental performance, and establishing desired outcomes. (PB)

The Core Alcohol and Drug Survey helps universities obtain accurate information about the effectiveness of their substance abuse prevention efforts. The self-report tool examines the nature, scope, and consequences of college students' substance use. Currently, 500,000 students on 800 campuses have completed the survey. The article presents…

Eastern Illinois University's Health Studies Department is developing a comprehensive plan for evaluating the professional preparation program. The article describes its methods, discussing how the plan can be adapted for other situations and noting how to use the Role Delineation Project Curriculum Framework to collect relevant, informative…

Discusses the strengths and weaknesses of patrons and reference librarians as sources of data for the evaluation of the effectiveness of answers to reference questions. Describes the Wisconsin-Ohio Reference Evaluation program and considers staffing patterns, time spent, collection size, and bibliographic instruction. Reference Transaction…

The stakes are getting higher for teachers to provide evidence that suggests their students are meeting the goals set forth by national and state standards. The stakes are also getting higher for administrators at the state and local levels to provide evidence that their teachers are "highly qualified." Currently lacking in many areas is an…

In this pilot study we sought to determine the reliability and validity of collecting speech and voice acoustical data via telephone transmission for possible future use in large clinical trials. Simultaneous recordings of each participant's speech and voice were made at the point of participation, the local recording (LR), and over a telephone…

Assessment is the key to developing an effective program and tracking the progress of each individual student. In turn, the pillar of assessment is collecting accurate, objective data. In this article, the authors discuss the importance of collecting accurate data on student performance in order to be accountable for the instruction and learning…

A statewide system of reporting faculty workload for the 18 Maryland state community colleges is described, and study findings on faculty workload are presented. Data are collected for full-time teaching faculty who are tenured or on continuous contract. Major findings include: 89 percent of faculty workload is spent in formal classroom…

This is the fourth in a series of reports evaluating the Public Library Statistics (PLS) program, an annual census of public libraries in the United States. The census includes, in addition to a full count of public libraries and their outlets, a variety of statistics about the services provided by and, the financial condition and the staffing…