U.S. education has experienced many waves of reform in responding to rapid changes in knowledge, technologies, and the economy. It is now widely accepted that, to succeed in the future, all young people must have the opportunity to develop critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, and communication competencies--often referred to as…

Discusses the importance of process evaluation in planning and improving community education programs. Offers a model for process evaluation and provides an example of how that model might be applied to a hypothetical community education program. (JG)

Four-stage model is presented as a way of achieving diversity in the means and ends of education primarily through more educational planning at the local level. (HD)

This study examines how communities participate in schools across diverse contexts in developing countries and the results attributed to community participation. It reviews evaluations of participatory approaches to education in developing countries to answer two basic questions: 1) How do communities participate in school in developing countries?…

Sixteen New Jersey school districts located in four counties were selected to field test a generic educational planning system. The pilot program was to "ascertain where changes in guidelines, procedures, policy program, or resources were needed." The second major goal of the pilot program was to produce information for those districts…

Evaluations of rural and small schools done by stakeholders provide a broader base of involvement than those done internally by persons with a vested interest or potential conflict of interest. Presents tasks for initiating a stakeholders' evaluation, groups considered to be stakeholders, evaluation standards, and elements to include in a school…

This school district guide examines the why of long-range planning, the relationship between long-range planning and educational change, the long-range planning process, community involvement in planning, the communicating of educational quality assessment and other needs assessment results with the public, needs assessment, prioritizing district…

The issue addressed is that of developing effective relationships between the schools and the community. The need for community involvement is explicated and the goals of community involvement are outlined. A theoretical basis for community involvement is presented, followed by the presentation of a model of home-school-community relationships.…

The broad purpose of this project was to examine all aspects of the Community College of Vermont (CCV) review and contracting process and to recommend changes to the CCV Review Board and Decision Team for implementation. Examination focused on the present program, the contract format, Local Review Committee procedures, the counseling process, and…

Based upon the premise that school divisions in Manitoba, Canada, should evaluate and improve upon themselves, this evaluation model was developed. The participating personnel and the development of the evaluation model are described. The model has 11 parts: (1) needs assessment; (2) statement of objectives; (3) definition of objectives; (4)…

A democratic model of educational evaluation and some policy recommendations to develop culturally appropriate evaluation are presented. The traditional hard science paradigm in research must be replaced with evaluation designed to feed back to communities of varying cultural backgrounds. The most fundamental assumption of the new model is…

The concept of needs and educational assessment is a blending of community participation and evaluation. There are four primary steps in this concept: goal definition, program assessment, needs identification, and decision making. This document offers a guideline model aimed at a simple, economical method of needs and educational assessment. It…