This report contains resources to help researchers and policymakers review measures used in NCEE evaluations of educational interventions. The measures included in the Compendium are applicable to settings for preschool through grade 12. The Compendium discusses criteria and their importance in selecting measures for assessing intervention impacts…

This year, an experimental group of 31 academically average high school sophomores were dual enrolled in both high school and college and will earn nine college credits by June. This paper presents a mid-year evaluation of student academic outcomes, which will be used for program improvement and future planning. The researcher is a member of the…

Since 2008 Texas's District Awards for Teacher Excellence (D.A.T.E.) program has provided grants to districts for the implementation of locally designed incentive pay plans. The 2010-11 school year is the third year of the D.A.T.E. incentive pay plans with approximately $197 million in annual state funding. This research brief summarizes the key…

Reported here is one part of the nationally representative, "Schools and Continuing Professional Development in England--State of the Nation" research study which was funded by the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA). This paper sets out to understand how teachers and school leaders in England perceive the benefits and…

We join the authors in this special issue in their call to embrace a culture of evaluation. Obstacles to change are formidable. Educators debate their purpose--provide knowledge or achieve environmental goals--and we have limited evidence of the effectiveness of environmental programs and policies. Change requires collaboration across…

This article reports on a pilot study undertaken in order to explore the impact of a home-based parenting intervention (Parents Plus), on parents and families. Parents Plus is part of a Welsh Early Years strategy called Flying Start and aims to promote positive parent-child interactions. This article explores the medium-term to long-term impact of…

Schools and districts should use a well-designed needs assessment to inform important decisions about a range of technology program areas. Presently, there is a lack of valid and reliable instruments available and accessible to schools to effectively assess their educational needs to better design and evaluate their projects and initiatives. The…

This chapter reports findings from the evaluation of an academic mentoring program for late adolescents that highlight the role of exposition to structured activities and mentors' use of some behavioral strategies. Specifically, different types of interactions in mentoring (such as discussing personal projects, resolving academic problems, and…

The Head Start National Reporting System (NRS) exemplified an assessment system where significant ambiguity existed regarding its purpose(s). This article considers the perceived purposes of the NRS from a local program perspective through observations and interviews with staff members during the 2004-2005 school year. This study found that a…

Improving the ability of disadvantaged students to read and comprehend text is also fundamental to the federal education policy aimed at closing the achievement gap between low- and high-achieving students. Title I of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 calls on educators to close the gap using approaches shown to be effective through…

Although Missouri has had a Career Ladder program for teachers since 1987, very little research has been carried out to measure the program's effects and what has been studied has not been comprehensive. This paper examines the program's effect on student achievement across the state, using longitudinal data on district math and reading scores for…

The purpose of this study was to conduct a program evaluation of nine virtual high school programs in the states of Alabama, California, Florida, Idaho, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina and Massachusetts. In order to assess the quality and effectiveness of the virtual high school programs in the study in terms of overall quality and…

This article discusses the vital leadership role that school counselors have in reaching the profession's accountability standards. According to the school counseling program evaluation literature, this leadership responsibility is explained as it relates to four major evaluation areas commonly associated with comprehensive school counseling…

Internships play a pivotal role in the future of school psychology, and internship training is influenced by disciplinary trends including (a) an increased focus on accountability and demonstrating the positive impact of trainees' practices on student outcomes and (b) growing emphasis on scientifically based and empirically based practice. These…

The Tax Relief Act of 1997 created an important tax provision which helped taxpayers offset the cost of higher education. This provision was in the form of education tax credits. Because a tax credit is a dollar for dollar reduction in tax liability, these education credits were designed to reduce the amount of tax due for college students or…