Group-randomized trials (GRTs)--studies that evaluate the efficacy or effectiveness of interventions occurring at the group level--are increasingly used to assess the effects of school-based prevention programs on behavioral outcomes of children and adolescents. These designs pose many implementation and design challenges for school…

In 1990, Milwaukee (Wisconsin) became the site of the first publicly funded school-choice program providing low-income parents with vouchers that could be used to send their children to secular, private schools. An evaluation of Milwaukee's school-choice experiment was conducted by a team of researchers, headed by John Witte at the University of…

A draft of a book, "School Choice: The Cultural Logic of Families, the Political Rationality of Institutions," received a great deal of media attention. The book contains research from nine different studies of school choice and includes an introduction and conclusion by Harvard professors Richard Elmore, Gary Orfield, and Bruce Fuller. The…

The methods and findings of studies of the effects and value of preschool education and compensatory education programs, such as Head Start, are reviewed. After introductory comments on ideological controversies and on terminology, section 1 focuses on evaluative studies of the immediate and long-term effects of preschool education and early…

The general purpose of this year-long study was to evaluate the effects of the Edmonton Hospital Workers' Child Care Society programs in three Canadian hospitals on the employers, the employees, and the children served. Specifically, this study investigated the effects of employer-supported child care on (1) employee absenteeism; (2) tardiness;…

Because research synthesis enables one to determine either the overall effectiveness of a particular treatment or the relative effectiveness of different types of treatments, it is becoming increasingly popular as a tool in program evaluation. Numerous methodological problems arise, however, when research synthesis is applied to studies conducted…

Of a group of 67 low-income first-time fathers-to-be, half were randomly assigned during the second trimester of pregnancy to participate in an intervention program designed to acquaint them with information, insights, and clinically appropriate techniques of responsive care for infants. Fathers were videotaped in feeding interactions with infants…

A study was conducted to understand better a common problem in job development efforts in rehabilitation--the poor returns of mailed-out surveys and, therefore, identification of few job leads for further cultivation. Two experimental job development investigations were used, one with large firms and one with small firms, to examine the effect of…

Effective schools are typically defined as those schools which improve or maintain already-established high levels of student achievement. A number of issues and research needs are raised which relate to the identification of effective schools. Unless the nature of "effectiveness" can be described and agreed upon, researchers face the possibility…

An extensive search of the literature on clinical supervision yielded 29 research studies and 3 works in progress. Studies using comparative measures conducted in K-12 school settings with inservice not preservice personnel were selected. These were grouped into four areas: attitudes toward supervision, effects of training, characteristics of…

Current research indicates that hospitalized children may profit best from preparation for surgery that is individually suited to their particular way of responding to hospitalization. It is likely, however, that preparation treatments will be provided for children in groups. Therefore, an attempt has been made to design and test information and…

The question "How should one decide which jobs are related to a training program?" must be answered directly and consistently before specialized training can be planned or evaluated. A conceptual framework is needed to provide a useful structure for thinking about the concept of training-related jobs, and certain issues must be resolved…

Decision-oriented inquiries emanate from a specific need for information and are conducted under a number of constraints. Conclusion-oriented research originates with the researcher and can be pursued in ways decided on by the researcher. Two examples of decision-oriented evaluation studies conducted by school districts and the relationships…

This paper traces the history of a series of early studies designed to identify and document unusually successful compensatory education projects. One of the major characteristics of the early studies is that they were based upon review and analysis of existing literature. Although they used similar data bases they varied considerably in…

The purpose of this paper is to outline and explain the evaluation system used by the Rhode Island Department of Education to measure the effectiveness of compensatory education programs. An exposition of how relevant background, program and financial information is collected is presented. In addition, a delineation is made of the methods…