This investigation employed an in-basket simulation to assess the effect of provisional analysis on the use of evaluation data by program administrators in making program decisions. Sixty-five volunteers from graduate education courses and 52 volunteers from undergraduate educational psychology classes at Western Kentucky University were randomly…

This paper discusses evaluation of human service programs. Evaluation can be useful because: (1) evaluative data can be relevant to the basic goal of a demonstration to field test some strategy or technique; (2) process evaluation can help generate enthusiasm for self-improvement among staff; (3) evaluation can help build a communication network…

California state officials vary in their perceptions of the functions and uses of state Department of Education evaluations, according to state legislators, legislative staff members, department administrators, and outside evaluators whose opinions were gathered through interviews and at a 1981 symposium. Highlighted here are the legislators'…

Teacher educators are in a state of near paralysis concerning their program evaluations. This paralysis comes from adopting wholesale a dysfunctional evaluative point of view from the dominant educational research establishment. There is a history of overestimating the current relevance of experimental behavioral science models for the gathering…

Five different program evaluations were described to indicate those qualities which make an evaluation effective or not effective. Evaluation effectiveness was defined as impact on decision making or long-term policy formation, and influence upon a variety of audiences. Robert D. Matz described the First Chance Project, and concluded that the…

A new role for evaluators is proposed, which reconstructs the evaluator into an information specialist who is part of a project team engaged in self evaluation. The evaluator's role has traditionally been complicated by disagreements about what is expected from the evaluator; by differing perceptions about the evaluator's power to effect change;…

Sixteen vocational education evaluation problems which indicate the present situation in the states are discussed, and alternative solutions to them are suggested in this report. Each problem represents a situation that should be remedied or a need that must be met and was found to be common to a number of states attempting to develop or improve…

THE PURPOSE OF THIS PAPER WAS TO EXAMINE THE DEGREE TO WHICH THE ERIC PROGRAM, AFTER TWO YEARS OF OPERATIONAL EXPERIENCE, WAS REACHING THE OBJECTIVES SET FORTH FOR IT AT ITS INCEPTION IN 1965. DATA FROM VARIOUS SOURCES INDICATE THAT ERIC HAS BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN ATTAINING ITS FOUR MAJOR OBJECTIVES--(1) TO MAKE SIGNIFICANT, BUT PREVIOUSLY UNAVAILABLE…

Modern communications methods make it possible to provide post graduate education for physicians at a time and place convenient to them, and at a time when they are most receptive to new information. This project involves a library of tape recordings of 4-6 minutes duration, available by telephone dial access to practicing physicians. The…

The East Central Curriculum Management Center (ECCMC) was evaluated by the Illinois State Advisory Council on Adult, Vocational and Technical Education. The council reviewed the internal operations of the center, including (1) an assessment of how various units within the Illinois Office of Education (IOE) related to the Center; (2) a survey of…

The report describes a three-day training program to improve the competencies of vocational educators in utilizing manpower information in planning vocational education programs. The program summary presents the goals and objectives, topics covered, procedures followed in participant selection and instruction, activities and accomplishments of the…

Financed with ESEA Title III funds since 1970, the School Information System (SIS) was designed essentially to furnish school administrators with data and information with which to make better decisions. The basic means were to (1) build and improve a data bank, (2) prepare and disseminate computerized reports to the decisionmakers--especially…

In many instances, the promotion of educational assessments has been viewed as a threat to some groups. Carefully conceived operational and analysis plans for state assessment may have little impact unless the purposes of assessment are clear and diffusion and utilization of information are well planned. Equally important is the provision of…

The internal resources an agency devotes to its own programmatic review and assessment can be most effectively related to the agency's administrative decision-making if the agency is self-evaluating and uses Havelock's model of linkage between formal research dissemination and utilization as a framework for the integration of program evaluation…