In recent years the Lincoln, Nebraska public school system has increased the amount of material available for the evaluation of its educational programs and has organized it for use in decision making situations. This position paper summarizes the current situation, and clarifies policies and procedures for educational program evaluation. Two…

To determine the effectiveness of a model driver education curriculum in leading to safe vehicle operation among beginning drivers, the Safe Peformance Curriculum, based on instructional objectives derived from analysis of the driver's tasks, was developed and pilot tested. Students were randomly assigned to one of the following: a Pre-Driver…

An evaluation of a bilingual education TV series was conducted involving 6-year-old English speaking, Spanish speaking, and bilingual children at four sites. Children were assigned to control and experimental groups with the latter group seeing four 30 minute shows. A pretest-posttest design was employed with the pretest serving as the covariate…

The Conference sought to provide a user-based and -oriented assessment of performance contracting for education. It focused on delineating the current interest in performance contracting, the technique's demonstrated strengths and weaknesses, and its potential as an alternative approach to school system resource allocation. Six commissioned papers…

Federal assistance for special educational programs makes necessary the regular study of evaluations of thousands of innovations in compensatory education, bilingual education, and reading programs. The results are reported to the President and to Congress. However, investigating organizations find only a few programs with adequate evidence and…

The Washington state Title I Migrant Program Evaluation project is a feasibility study designed to assess the suitability of existing normed criterion referenced tests to measuring mathematics achievement at grades four, five, and six. Objectives include judging the technical qualities and content of several normed criterion referenced tests;…

To comply with Ohio state standards, guidelines are provided for local school districts to organize a competency program. Five steps are outlined: (1) planning the program, including budgeting, scheduling, inservice training, coordinating advisory and working committees, and ensuring public awareness; (2) establishing competencies, by developing…

The Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education uses state-developed, criterion-referenced tests for the purpose of evaluating programs funded by Chapter 1 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The agency's efforts to obtain approval from the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) to use state norms for evaluation purposes are…

A resource is presented for those who work in bilingual education and who are involved in test selection. Initial information is provided regarding tests that might be used for student identification, placement and diagnosis, progress monitoring, exiting decisions, and program evaluation purposes. No endorsement or recommendation is implied and no…

This report evaluates an "effective schools" intervention project, the purpose of which was to improve achievement on proficiency tests in selected Knoxville City Schools (KCS). Six target schools, predominantly serving Knoxville's impoverished areas as identified by Chapter I and census data, were selected to work toward improving…

The volume focuses on topics discussed at a symposium on research methodology in special education, with emphasis on the special educator's perspective. Following an introductory section (three chapters), are three sections with 17 chapters which cover the following topics: design of educational prescriptions--behavioral objectives and criterion…

Procedures are described to conduct summative evaluations of Talents Unlimited programs. It is assumed that school counselors, administrators, or personnel minimally trained in measurement and statistics are capable of conducting the evaluation, except for doing the statistical analysis. The procedures are composed of: establishing measurable…

A criterion-referenced instrument, Inventory of Cognitive Skills and Visual-Motor Functioning, was devised to evaluate a prekindergarten program for economically disadvantaged 4-year-olds. The Inventory, administered to each child at the beginning and end of the preschool experience, provided specific information in: (1) knowledge of body parts,…

This report discusses the 1970-71 school year Latin FLES program in the School District of Philadelphia which more than 4,000 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade pupils received 15 to 20 minutes' daily instruction in Latin from Latin teachers who served several schools. Primary objectives of the program were: (1) to introduce children to basic Latin…

This paper highlights some special characteristics of criterion-referenced tests while comparing them with norm-referenced tests. Psychometric considerations involved in constructing a criterion-referenced test, including item analysis, reliability, and validity, are discussed, along with application of criterion-referenced testing to individual…