This follow-up study of 54 graduates of a California high school career and vocational services program for students with developmental disabilities or learning disabilities found that only 39 percent were in competitive employment and that jobs were predominantly in the food, building, fabrication, and packaging service occupations. Most…

Summarizes conclusions from a review on the effects of programs intended to prevent early school failure. Examines the effects of birth-to-three programs, preschool, kindergarten, grade retention, class size and instructional aides, nongraded primary programs, one-to-one tutoring, and others. Research on prevention and early intervention indicates…

Major findings from a five-year study of the impact of the Swedish School Leader Education Program (SLEP), a program of leadership development for principals and vice principals, are reported. Despite research design difficulties, results for 35 school management areas and 66 evaluators suggest a positive impact of the SLEP. (SLD)

The college president of a Division I university must have accurate and timely information on intercollegiate athletics to be able to represent it to the institution's constituencies. Information needed includes the admissions process for recruits, classroom performance of student athletes, and personal conduct of team members and coaches.…

A discussion of environmental education in elementary, secondary, and higher education in Spain chronicles its history since 1970, the roles of public and private agencies in educational change, research initiatives, the effects of 1990 educational reforms, trends in facilities available for environmental education, program evaluation, and…

Clarifies concept of educational quality from international perspective, provides an illustrative range of definitions, and examines some difficulties in implementing "quality" for assessment and planning purposes. Defining quality is linked to the diversity, conflicts, and power divisions within society. Full consensus on the specifics…

Provides details of the approval and renewal-revocation process for 11 different charter-school programs in the United States and the charter-school scheme of the Russian Federation. The authors also report on three New England schools that have no charter but manage to find ways to neutralize the inhibiting influence of bureaucracy. (GLR)

Three case studies illustrate how recent classroom observation research has led to more active participation on the part of teachers, principals, and supervisors. The groups have worked closely to understand how the core French program works in the classroom. Participatory research is seen as an important professional development opportunity for…

Changing views of models of evaluation are considered, with a review of models for program evaluation debated in the 1970s. The evaluation of a police probationer training program illustrates the relationship between the democratic evaluation advocated by B. MacDonald and action research. (SLD)

A discussion of economic and social arguments that advance adult literacy is followed by a review of definitions of literacy, issues of literacy instruction, issues of language, and issues of assessment and evaluation. (91 references) (LB)

A model is presented that relates health promotion and disease prevention (HPDP) education to desired characteristics of medical school graduates, including knowledge and sense of ability in the HPDP field, specialty preference, and residency choice. The model facilitates: program evaluation using standard data sets, and identification of…

Examines in broad terms the Science with Japanese Program at Griffith University, Brisbane, Queensland, and evaluates the success of this program in terms of academic achievement and relevance to future employment. (12 references) (GLR)

The status of formal recommendations is different in the naturalistic evaluation model than in the traditional empirical model. The evaluation of a high school peer support program for alcohol abuse prevention illustrates that reader-generated recommendations may have more usefulness and impact than do evaluator-generated ideas. (SLD)

Describes a program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, in which library school students in the introduction to reference course participate in a required practicum at the research library information desk. Although a survey of other accredited library schools shows no other similar practicum program, 49% of those surveyed expressed interest.…

Examines how Connecticut's alternative teacher certification policy objectives have been met during the Alternative Route program's first three years. The program has successfully brought qualified individuals into teaching who contribute excellent subject matter knowledge and professionalism. It has been an external catalyst for change in…