The Iowa Distance Education Alliance (IDEA) is a partnership involving educational institutions across Iowa that have received funding from the Federal Star Schools Program to demonstrate the use of the Iowa Communication Network's (ICN) fiber optic technology for elementary and secondary education. First-year activities focused on teacher…

This report presents recommendations for performance indicators for Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), with emphasis on indicators reflecting the needs of the Education Department. Themes of the indicators include more attention given to "context variables" such as low birth-weight infants and drug abuse…

Risk factors associated with the unsuccessful discharge from a secondary-level therapeutic day treatment program of students with serious emotional/behavioral disorders (E/BD) were studied. The use of epidemiologic analysis as a program evaluation method was also investigated by comparing risks associated with identified characteristics of the…

This collaborative action research project focused on the educational practice of a voluntary sector playgroup (preschool) in the United Kingdom. It utilized the Quality Evaluation and Development (QED) model to conduct an evaluation phase, action plan phase, development phase, and a reflection phase over the course of the 1994-95 school year. The…

Tennessee has adopted a model of educational accountability called the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS). The model attempts to measure district, school, and teacher effects on student academic gains, rather than emphasizing achievement scores at a single time, using data generated by a standardized test, the Tennessee Comprehensive…

The Beauty Way Curriculum is an alcohol and substance abuse prevention program. This curriculum was designed for use in grades K-8 and includes at least five different lessons for each grade, along with supplemental materials. This research report analyzes the data collected by four instruments--training feedback forms, curriculum feedback forms,…

The University of South Carolina is using assessment to bring about academic change in general education at several levels: the individual student; system-wide courses; and the entire general education program. The approach uses both qualitative and quantitative data, and has enabled faculty to collaborate both across disciplines and all eight…

This brief paper reports on the results of the 1994 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessment in U.S. history for grades 4, 8, and 12. The themes addressed in the assessment were intended to ensure that all major branches of historical study were covered and that emphasis on various areas was balanced. Themes include: (1)…

This book reports on the 1994 National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) assessment in geography for grades 4, 8, and 12. Students performance is summarized on a scale ranging from 0 to 500 with the achievement levels of Basic, Proficient and Advanced for each grade. Major findings for the nation include: (1) The Proficient level was…

The Healthy Start Initiative is a national five-year demonstration program that uses a broad range of community-driven, system development approaches to reduce infant mortality and improve the health and well-being of women, infants, children, and families. This volume, third in the series, deals with the topic of sustainability, which refers to…

This report describes the attitudes of school superintendents in Kentucky about the implementation of school reforms based on the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 (KERA); this survey also investigated changes in the perceptions of superintendents over the previous year related to the policies, programs, and practices of KERA. The study was…

This document reports on an evaluation of physical education programs in grades K-12 in Des Moines (Iowa). The document is divided into seven parts. Part 1, "Introduction," reviews the mission and philosophies regarding teaching physical education. Part 2, "Context Evaluation," summarizes Iowa state policies, standards, and…

The usefulness of authentic assessments as formative tools for teachers is well documented and supported. However, when educational institutions use these assessments as summative tools for evaluating programs and meeting accountability needs, several problems emerge. One set of problems relates to the difficulty of fitting authentic assessments…

The idea of civic engagement among school staffs is explored with the aim of understanding why reform initiatives often fail to be initiated fully in urban schools. This synthesis of findings across nine separate program evaluations conducted for the Philadelphia Education Fund (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was prompted by the recognition that the…

In spring 1995, College of the Desert, in California, undertook a study to determine the perceptions of students at both its Copper Mountain and Palm Desert campuses regarding college services. A representative sample of students were administered a 7-point attitude scale (Student Satisfaction Survey developed by Noel-Levitz Centers, Inc.) both…