Important findings are often a balance between the rigor of the experimental design and innovativeness of the experimental question. One broad topic area that has received a great deal of discussion, but little empirical study, is the evaluation of educational systems. Experimental designs that permit the analysis of practices used by state…

We rely a great deal on the schematic descriptions that represent experimental and quasi-experimental design arrangements, as well as the discussions of threats to validity associated with these, provided by Campbell and his associates: Stanley, Cook, and Shadish. Some of these designs include descriptions of treatments removed, removed and then…

As the field of program evaluation has evolved, there has been a proliferation of approaches to the craft, each with a different conceptualization of the role the evaluator plays in relation to the program, organization, and practitioners with whom he or she works. A few recent conceptualizations of evaluator role include that of a "critical…

Although academic libraries have a long tradition of program assessment, in the past the results have been more meaningful internally than externally. Recent changes in the conceptualization of libraries' role in higher education and advances in measurement tools will likely provide answers to different questions, particularly the relationship of…

The Higher Learning Commission (HLC), a commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA), accredits Wyoming's seven community colleges. Institutional accreditation is a voluntary process that serves the critical purposes of quality assurance and institutional and program improvement. Colleges that are accredited by the HLC…

This brief and accompanying Funder's Sustainability Assessment Tool is intended to help foundation leaders address the challenges of sustainability. The brief begins with a framework for thinking about sustainability, introduces an assessment tool funders can use in a variety of ways to support sustainability in their grantmaking, and concludes…

The purpose of this Guide is to advise researchers, policymakers, and others on when it is possible to conduct a high-quality randomized controlled trial in education at reduced cost. Well-designed randomized controlled trials are recognized as the gold standard for evaluating the effectiveness of an intervention (i.e., program or practice) in…

This paper argues that the formulation of policy, at whatever level, to whatever scale or scope, is any different to the myriad of processes involved in strategic planning within and between organisations, and the attendant decision making processes that abound in such an environment (Hage, 1980; Hickson, 1987; Thompson, 1967; Weick, 1976). Those…

Background: Reliable measures of aggressive challenging behaviour are required if interventions aimed at reducing this behaviour among people with intellectual disability (ID) are to be formally evaluated. The present authors examined the reliability of the Modified Overt Aggression Scale (MOAS), an instrument not yet formally tested in those with…

During the past 30 years, there have been calls for universities and business schools to internationalize curriculum, students and faculty. As most U.S. business schools have added international components to their respective programs, the assessment of these programs was subsequently recommended from accreditation and competitive perspectives. To…

The literature indicates that the demand for program evaluations is likely to increase and that those evaluations will be conducted across diverse disciplines. Preparation of discipline-specific evaluators may present challenges. This study reviews the experiences of a group of arts educators who participated in a discipline-specific evaluation…

The Parent Education Profile (PEP) is an instrument that rates parents' support for children's literacy development. This study examined how the PEP portrays the ideal parent, its assumptions about parenting and education, and the values and ideals it promotes. In sum, many aspects of the PEP evaluate parents by the mainstream (White,…

The chronic and relapsing nature of substance abuse points to the need for continuing care after a primary phase of treatment. This article reviews the economic studies of continuing care, discusses research gaps, highlights some of the challenges of conducting rigorous economic evaluations of continuing care, and offers research guidelines and…

The purpose of the study was to compare the practices used by HRD professionals to evaluate web-based and classroom-based training programs within seven Korean companies. This study used four components of evaluation to examine how HRD professionals evaluated web-based and classroom-based training programs in their organizations and compared the…

Purpose: The use of e-learning is largely predicated upon the assumption that it can facilitate improvements in student learning and therefore can be more effective than conventional techniques. This assumption has been supported by some in the literature but has been questioned by a continuing body of contrary or indifferent evidence. The purpose…