This article describes the development and use of a rapid evaluation approach to meet program accountability and learning requirements in a research for development program operating in five developing countries. The method identifies clusters of outcomes, both expected and unexpected, happening within areas of change. In a workshop, change agents…

Conditional cash transfer programs (CCTs) have two main objectives: reducing poverty and increasing the human capital of children. To reach these objectives, transfers are given to poor households conditioned on investments in their children's education, health, and nutrition. Targeting mechanisms used by CCTs have been generally successful in…

Unemployment insurance is the principal income program for workers who lose their jobs, however, it does not provide adequate income, nor does it provide for all unemployed persons. Because many different programs are operated for this purpose, they tend to have a fragmented effect and leave many unemployed persons with no income support. This…

THIS STUDY EXAMINES THE PROGRESS OF 125 CHILDREN IN THE CLEVELAND PUBLIC SCHOOL KINDERGARTENS WHO ATTENDED HEADSTART DURING THE SUMMER AND 125 CHILDREN IN THE SAME SCHOOLS WHO DID NOT ATTEND THE HEADSTART PROGRAM. SOME INDICATIONS IN THIS STUDY SUGGEST THAT A HEADSTART CHILD SHOWS MUCH GREATER VARIABILITY IN HIS CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT THAN A…

Data from a stratified random sample of full-year 1967-1968 and summer 1968 Head Start programs were re-analyzed to compare centers operated by local educational agencies (LEA) and community action agencies (CAA). The analyses indicated that CAA-operated programs were more likely to report parent participation in decision making and as paid staff,…

In 2005, an estimated 48 million children aged 0-18 years--12 percent of all children in sub-Saharan Africa--were orphans, and that number is expected to rise to 53 million by 2010. One quarter of all orphans are orphaned because of AIDS, and about 2.6 million children are currently infected with HIV. Untreated, most children born with HIV will…

The report evaluates the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) in Missouri by comparing the dietary adequacy and nutrition knowledge of 200 program families representative of urban, small town and rural areas with that of 200 similarly representative non-program families. Data were gathered by personal interviews taken in March,…

The New Hope Project in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was developed to reduce poverty and reform welfare by providing adults who are willing to work least 30 hours per week with the following: help obtaining a job, including time-limited, minimum wage community service jobs (CSJ) if full-time employment was not otherwise available; a monthly earnings…

THIS INTERIM REPORT OF PRE- AND POST-JOB CORPS STATUS FOR TERMINATIONS (GRADUATES, DROPOUTS, AND DISCHARGES) IS THE SECOND PART OF A CONTINUING EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF JOB CORPS TRAINING. OF 4,649 TERMINATIONS FOR THE PERIOD, 1,254 WERE PERSONALLY INTERVIEWED. SOME OF THE SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS WERE--(1) FEWER THAN HALF OF THE TERMINATIONS…

States have used variants of these three approaches to structure the welfare to-work component of welfare reform for single mothers: (1) put education or training first; (2) place job searching first; and (3) create a flexible program that allows staff and participants choice in the initial and subsequent activities. Research on these program…