Two papers are presented from a panel discussion moderated by Naomi Zigmond, who introduces the papers with a note on definitions and measures of intervention effectiveness. "Some Thoughts on Effective Intervention for Handicapped Preschoolers," by Phillip Strain, notes that special education researchers attempt to be efficient, economical,…

This background paper on refugee needs assessment discusses the assumptions, goals, objectives, strategies, models, and methods that the state refugee programs can consider in designing their strategies for assessing the mental health needs of refugees. It begins with a set of background assumptions about the ethnic profile of recent refugee…

A review is presented of the operations of the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER). Overviews are provided of ACER activities and future planning in the following programs: (1) social context of education; (2) measurement and evaluation; (3) learning and teaching; (4) survey and psychometric services; (5) advisory services; and (6)…

The Institute for Business, Industry and Government was established at Orange County Community College (New York) in April 1984 for the purpose of providing high quality, cost-effective training taught by qualified professionals at convenient locations and to develop methods of measuring training effectiveness. Since its first year of offering…

A set of weighting factors on student credit hour production by discipline was developed so that instructional productivity could be equitably compared across disparate disciplines and within disciplines. The new statistical methodology was applied to 3 years of teaching load data from 21 major public universities (the Southern University Group…

Efforts to integrate the gathering of student outcome data with the long-range planning efforts of Xavier University, Louisiana, a traditionally black college, are described. Attention is directed to the need for measurement of key performance indicators as perceived by students. Rather than soliciting students' views, their participation in…

The Preliminary Manual for the Portland Problem Behavior Checklist (PPBC) was developed to aid school personnel to identify problem behaviors, and to implement and evaluate intervention procedures to remediate or alter those problem behaviors. This manual describes the development, validation, administration, scoring procedures, and possible uses…

The purpose of this study was to explore whether, and if so how, ongoing measurement and evaluation procedures affect the instruction that special educators provide and the educational decisions that they make. Eighteen experimental group teachers employed specific continuous evaluation procedures while 21 contrast group teachers employed…

The 11 processes and models, developed between 1979-82 for use by local migrant education projects, include guidelines for assessing the project's needs for external resources in all program areas and for conducting an inventory of the materials and equipment needs. A process for analyzing staffing is followed by tips for hiring bilingual staff. A…

From six institutions in the Illinois Department of Corrections school district, 359 adult male inmates served as subjects for this research evaluation of basic skills. Three groups were in traditional self-paced instruction, and the other three groups were in Program Logic for Automated Training Operations (PLATO) computer managed instruction…

A guide to help colleges examine teaching and inquiry in the area of war, peace, conflict, and change is presented. The self-study of educational activities may be coordinated by the campus minister or a faculty member. The following broad areas of inquiry are identified, along with specific questions: international conflict, the U.S. role in…

Although the development of new models is essential to the improvement of teacher preparation programs, the California system of accreditation of teacher education programs seems to hinder innovative program development and evaluation. External assessment in California is based on a discrepancy model which works best when applied to static…

Assessing the self-esteem of students may be one way to evaluate the effectiveness of educational programs. To study the impact of an art-based program, middle and high school students completed the Self Esteem Inventory as well as intelligence and achievement measures. Results showed that self-esteem mean scores (both pre and post) were well…

This packet is the second of five developed as a set of self-appraisal instruments with which teachers (and others) can systematically examine their instruction methods in communication skills. The packet contains forms for teachers, students, administrators, and parents addressing two levels of specificity: responses to the overall communication…

A series of weekly seminars were conducted in which 15 elementary and secondary teachers were encouraged and helped to investigate, in some depth, topics related to their current practice. The project was designed to help teachers develop and carry out research investigations in their own classroom. Another project objective was to get the…