Museums often evaluate various aspects of their audiences' experiences, be it what they learn from a program or how they react to an exhibition. Each museum program or exhibition has its own set of goals, which can drive what an evaluator studies and how an evaluation evolves. When designing an evaluation, data collection methods are purposefully…

Background: How do we account for the persistent difficulty the U.S. community of science has in educating larger numbers of talented and diverse undergraduates? We posit that the problem lies in the community's unremitting focus on scientific subject matter knowledge and students' ability to learn, to the neglect of interpersonal social…

This article describes the lessons learned during the implementation of a new master's degree program for K-8 teachers. The program's goal was to increase student inquiry and sense making in mathematics and science classrooms. Each of the twenty-four teacher participants reported strong satisfaction with the program, and a variety of measures…

This paper describes the analysis of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Math and Science Partnership (MSP) program's January 2008 Learning Network Conference (LNC). This study focuses on the methodologies used by the MSP community to generate evidence and seeks to understand topics of interest to the 320 LNC participants. The data set for this…

Research on student achievement indicates the U.S. K-12 education system is not adequately preparing American students to compete in the 21st century global economy in the areas of science and mathematics. Congress has asked the scientific entities of the federal government to help increase K-12 science learning by creating standards-based…

Argues that science educators often face the problem of abnormal distributions when conducting large-scale assessments or evaluating national curriculum projects that require complex sampling plans. Examines the precision of science test scores. (DDR)

This report reviews 5 years of work involving the Parent Empowerment Project (PEP) and also examines the results of a study that was undertaken to plot the changes in school performance of at-risk children and youth that have occurred since their parents became involved with PEP. It includes: (1) a summary of the demographics and characteristics…

A study is being conducted to evaluate and revise an innovative science program which was field tested in three schools representative of urban, rural, and suburban populations. The objectives of the study are to assess the program's actual performance of its stated objectives and to inform the program developer of inherent strengths and…

An approach to evaluation initiated by the Kellogg Foundation called cluster evaluation (not to be confused with cluster sampling) is described. Cluster evaluation provides a skilled, credible evaluator to work with a cluster of projects to assure that useful and defensible information is obtained for program evaluation. (SLD)

The final versions of nationally developed standards for science education have recently been published for use by practitioners, and it is obvious that these standards will have some influence on how science education is conducted. The effects of the standards on teaching and curriculum development can be anticipated, but their effects on…

This paper reports on the use of teacher-written "cases" as evaluation data sources. Cases are first hand, candid, dramatic, highly readable accounts of events or a series of events in teaching. Eight teaching cases were collected which had been written by new teachers who graduated from the Maryland Collaborative for Teacher Preparation…

The Iowa-UPSTEP program appears to be a highly successful teacher education program. Current students feel relatively positive about their experiences and post graduates seem to be highly competent teachers. The program is a four-year, clinically-oriented science teacher preparation program providing undergraduates with early opportunities to deal…

The data in this report were collected as part of a study that involved all teacher education graduates at the University of Iowa prior to 1970. The information from this study is considered baseline data for an evaluation of the Iowa-UPSTEP program (Undergraduate Pre-Service Teacher Education Program), which was begun in 1969 as a proposed…

This fact book evaluates Comprehensive Partnerships for Mathematics and Science Achievement (CPMSA) based on the Tabulated Indicators for Systemic Changes (TISC-2002). The CPMSA is a National Science Foundation (NSF) program designed to improve the mathematics and science education of urban students in medium-sized cities. Twenty-seven cities…

The National Science Foundation's Statewide Systemic Initiative (SSI) program attempted to address concerns about student performance in science, mathematics, and technology education. The SSIs were supposed to increase and improve student learning in these areas by having challenging academic standards, a hands-on approach to instruction, the use…