The Biennial Report presents a summary of programs and services provided by the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction for 2007-2009. The State Superintendent notes that while North Dakota's education system is good, slippage in test scores is occurring, cracks in the education system are developing and some students are falling through…

This article provides a critical review of the quality of 12 recent large federal program evaluations. The review focused on elements of the evaluation design, inclusion of evaluation expertise among those who have oversight of the evaluation, and evaluation dissemination. Overall, the process analyses from these evaluations provide good models…

This article presents findings from the evaluation of the Caring Equation, a Department of Health and Human Services-funded project established in 2003 in Arlington County, Virginia, public schools. The program is a multifaceted intervention program and is one of about 20 programs currently operating in school districts around the United States.…

In the past three decades, program evaluation has sought to more fully engage stakeholders in the evaluative process. But little information has been gathered from stakeholders about how they share in evaluation tasks and whether role sharing leads to confusion or tensions between the evaluator and the stakeholders. This article reports findings…

This final report of the National Institute on Library Service to Jail Populations begins with a discussion of project implementation related to objectives and procedures, the project planning committee, publicity and promotion, and other significant features and activities. The impact of the project and possible future activities are considered.…

The evolution of the social indicators movement is described, focusing particularly upon the split between those who hold that indicators are statistical time series for the measurement of social change and those who look to social indicators for evaluations of government programs. In addition to discussing these two positions and their impact on…

This study examines Emergency School Aid Act (ESAA) program operations related to school desegregation in New York and New Jersey. Included are brief discussions of application submission, grant competition, and project monitoring and technical assistance. Information presented is based on Federal and State data, program records, interviews, and…

The purpose of this paper, one of three related documents, is to present hypotheses about the causes for the success of the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education. The fund's success is demonstrated by the following achievements, all discussed indepth: diversity among the fund's applicants and grantees, multidimensional projects,…

The Exemplary Rehabilitation Certificate (ERC) program of the Department of Labor was established to provide special help at public employment offices to ex-servicemen with other than honorable discharge. If such an ex-serviceman can establish good conduct for three years prior to application, he may obtain an ERC which is supposed to entitle the…

Examines budgetary cutbacks in federal data systems. Concludes that (1) justifications for cutbacks are unconvincing; (2) cutbacks have affected data availability and quality severely; (3) the feasibility of the idea that major data users should collect their own information is dubious; and (4) special evaluation studies cannot substitute for…

One explanation for the apparent failure to achieve the objectives of citizen involvement in policy planning and greater agency sensitivity to citizen interests is that advocates have not based goals on sound empirical and theoretical grounds. A number of propositions are suggested. (Author/IRT)

Federal intervention programs are affected by pressures that inhibit honest evaluations. (MM)

Application of evaluability assessment by the Cooperative Extension Service of the Department of Agriculture is reviewed. The effort involved five states with six major programs since 1984. Underlying philosophy and methodological considerations are discussed, and background information is provided on the assessment processes and studies…

The state of the art of randomized social field experiments is discussed. Topics discussed include disciplines of primary actors involved in such research, scientific value of experimentation, the nation's capacity to conduct field experiments, and society's willingness to permit such experiments. (TJH)