A field test was designed and conducted to examine the effectiveness of Arizona-designed career education units, particularly to examine the units' success in terms of their ability to affect positively students' cognitive, affective, and psychomotor behavior according to expressed performance and behavioral objectives. Eleven career education…

The methodological difficulty of evaluating alternative programs in specific, measurable terms is described. Based on an alternative program at Talawanda High School in Oxford, Ohio, the writer attempted to develop a model for evaluating an alternative program. The following evaluation procedures were selected: (1) attendance and grades prior to…

Education is too complex, multidimensional, and poorly understood to lend itself to a single cost/effectiveness criterion. Rather, analysts in the educational field seek to rank alternatives by their effectiveness, report separately on the cost implications, and leave the tradeoffs to the decisionmaker's judgment. In this context, a program is any…

An independent statewide study of 4,735 elementary schools, conducted after three years of the Early Childhood Education Program (ECE) in California, indicates that ECE schools have lower reading scores in grades 2 and 3 when compared to non-ECE schools. Five potential causes for this discrepancy are discussed. (CP)

The study sampled 145 elementary school handicapped children in order to compare a mainstreamed and self-contained special education program in a large urban school district. (Author/PHR)

Adult performance level (APL) methodology, results, and conclusions are summarized. Taking exception to functional literacy accounting for an individuals level of income, education, and job status, the author questions the utilitarian value of an APL curriculum. (Author)

Implementation of this competency-based data processing course avoided the high start-up costs of self-paced instructional methodology, yet still resulted in increases in (1) levels of student competency, (2) student satisfaction, (3) average grade, (4) positive level of student evaluation of the teacher, and (5) proportion of students completing…

Eight steps of the skill training process and 10 rules of learning psychology are discussed as techniques for increasing training effectiveness. The eight steps are: include preevaluate, plan, prepare, present, perform, practice, evaluate performance, and follow up. The 10 rules concern motivation, use of the senses, receptivity, association,…

Proposes five measurable indicators to assess effectiveness of young adult library services program: proportion of eligible young adults served; success rate in using library; appropriateness of collection; proportion of young adults participating in library programs; and proportion of cross-age programs held involving adolescents. Twenty-seven…

Ways in which the Program Effectiveness and Related Cost evaluation strategy at Empire State College is contributing to informed decisions about educational outcomes are discussed. (Editor/LBH)

This article describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of a diagnostic experiential simulation (Gredler, 2004) in a graduate Performance Technology (PT) course. Simulations are experiences that provide an authentic learning environment that scaffolds novices' problem solving while minimizing the risks of 'practicing' their newly learned…

This action research project implemented and evaluated a program for establishing organizational skills, utilizing routines and tools that maximize school success. The targeted population consisted of students in four kindergarten classes in a primary school and three third-grade classes in an intermediate school. Analysis of probable cause data…

Increasingly, out-of-school time programs are being asked to provide data that documents their progress and demonstrates their results. But for many OST programs and their over-worked staff this added responsibility is the "straw that broke the camel?s back." Across the country there is a cry from programs for help in deciding what to measure and…

Discusses successes and problems of the Adult Performance Level (APL) project funded by the U.S. Office of Education in 1971 to identify the skills necessary for an adult to function successfully in today's society. (TA)