The need for higher enrollment, along with a greater focus on educational access and making college more accessible has created an urgent need for community colleges and universities to develop retention and persistence strategies for students who are not prepared academically and may lack the resources to be successful in college (Bailey &…

This paper provides practical information to help experiential educators from varying backgrounds effectively use program evaluation. Program evaluation uses specific and systematic procedures that result in findings that are useful to decision makers for achieving program goals. The purpose of any program review process must be clear, including…

A study was conducted to determine criteria for use in evaluating Indiana local school districts' delivery of programs and services in vocational and technical education and steps for the use of these criteria. Data were gathered by a review of the literature from 1983-1989 and telephone interviews with state agency personnel, concentrating on…

Much of the evaluation of vocational education at the state and local levels has been conducted in response to federal legislation. Although some of the evaluative information has been useful for program improvement, much has been collected only for compliance with federal and state mandates. The educational reform movement has prompted school…

The lack of consensus among researchers in defining the focal construct of rurality has led to contradictory conclusions of whether or not a rural-urban performance gap exists in higher education. Compounding this problem are the changing definitions of rural and urban, even among governmental agencies. Thus, this study used two different…

The Annual Performance Report submitted by each state to the Office of Vocational and Adult Education was used to monitor what states have developed and how and to what extent states have implemented their accountability system. The following findings of this analysis are synthesized in this report: (1) 32 states require evaluation of all programs…

A study examined the information collected by the Department of Defense on both the quality of its new recruits and the effectiveness of its training in preparing recruits to operate in a technologically sophisticated environment. It found that data were collected at a recruit's entrance to military life, during and upon completion of formal…

Wise use of Department of Education program evaluation funds is considered. The following current principal evaluation areas are discussed: (1) compensatory education; (2) bilingual education; (3) postsecondary education; (4) vocational education; (5) early childhood education; (6) drug education; (7) dropout prevention; (8) special education and…

In this first of three volumes, issues related to the prediction of the potential effectiveness of a simulator training device are reviewed, and the methods used to analyze effectiveness are discussed. The Army, which uses simulator devices for performance based weapons training, has used a process linked to the Life Cycle System Management Model…

This book, which is intended for adult educators and human resource developers, presents guidelines for assessing adult learning. The following are among the topics covered in the book's eight chapters: (1) basic principles of informal assessment (relationship between learning and assessment activities; sequencing learning and assessment…