In September 2005, the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) launched the Out-of-School Time Programs for Youth (OST) initiative to provide young people throughout New York City with access to high-quality programming after school, on holidays, and during the summer at no cost to their families. Working closely with…

Adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) frequently experience social isolation and vocational failure. Although social skills groups are vital, relatively few model programs have been developed for this age group. This article reviews the model and evaluation of the Aspirations program, an 8-week social and vocational…

This article describes a participatory action research (PAR) project conducted in a large urban, co-educational secondary school. The project focused on two senior pupils with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who, seemingly as a result of feeling stressed or anxious, displayed behaviours that inhibited communication. Using questionnaires,…

This methodological study examines an original data collection model designed to incorporate human factors and enhance data richness in qualitative and evaluation research. Evidence supporting this model is drawn from in-depth youth and adult interviews in one of the largest policy/program evaluations undertaken in the United States, the Drug,…

The Professional Development Laboratory (P.D.L.) is a model for staff development in which experienced teachers serve as peer coaches for other teachers who want to refine their skills, learn and practice new skills, and share classroom techniques with one another, in selected New York City school districts. Visiting teachers spend 3 to 4 week…

Resident Supervisory Support for Teachers (RSST) is a peer supervision program designed to improve classroom instruction by training school personnel to use effective clinical supervision techniques. Participants are trained to help teachers identify strengths and improve their weaknesses. This final evaluation report provides information on the…

The impact of the educational programs of zoos on the recreational visitor is addressed in this report. Unobtrusive or nonreactive research methods were employed as primary evaluative techniques by graduate social science students conducting six research projects at the Los Angeles Zoo. These studies were designed and implemented to examine: (1)…

Since objective data on the effectiveness of self-help groups are not available, participants' views of a program's value are instructive. A study was undertaken to contrast participants' (N=232) evaluations of their self-help meetings with independent observers' (N=11) evaluations and to describe the components of their respective views in terms…

These guidelines outline the role of the visiting team members and the team leader and familiarize the team with details necessary to conduct a comprehensive external evaluation of Wisconsin secondary vocational programs. First, the three goals of the on-site evaluation are outlined. A discussion of the team selection and team members' functions…

The major purpose of this study was to present some findings relative to the benefits and the effectiveness of total learning in a full-day-kindergarten program as compared to the traditional half-day kindergarten program. To do this the Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corporation of Indiana, implemented and conducted a full-day kindergarten pilot…

A study involving 16 preschool students was conducted to determine whether severely handicapped preschool children could learn normal classroom behavior through the single treatment variable of exposure to the regular classroom environment with normal peers. Systematic observation of the children's free play and verbal interaction, independence in…

This study reports an attempt to measure implementation of Head Start Planned Variation, a national experiment designed to compare the relative effectiveness of 12 education models. The report first gives the background of the experiment, describes the problem of attempting to assess effectiveness without first measuring implementation, and…

Discussed in connection with Project PRIME (Programmed Reentry into Mainstream Education) is the need for educational research to assess the comparative efficacy of three instructional settings (regular resource, and self-contained special education classes) for providing services to handicapped children. It is explained that data on the classroom…

This study found no significant difference in classroom teaching performance between participants enrolled in the three semester on-site teacher preparation sequence and participants enrolled in a one semester on-campus and two semester on-site sequence. Subjects were 39 volunteer undergraduate students enrolled in the Department of Secondary…

Article presents accounts and reactions to a program that included the opportunity for students to evaluate their suitability for and desire to enter the teaching profession without having to wait until student teaching. (Author/RK)