A General Policy Systems Theory is outlined and its application at a university in regard to governance in the face of retrenchment is described. The way that this model of nonrigorous but holistic research supports the Purpose, Target, Results (PTR) strategy and is in turn more useful than either operations research/management or science/systems…

Bayesian data analytic procedures were used to assess the effects of a new undergraudate advising program designed to focus on students who do not initially declare a major field of study. Past research has shown that these students tend to graduate at a low rate, relative to those who do declare majors. It was hypothesized that these students…

In 1974, 1978, and 1980, follow-up surveys of former data processing students were conducted by William Rainey Harper College (WRHC) to help evaluate the data processing program and support curriculum development. The 1974 survey included anyone enrolled between fall 1968 and spring 1973 who had taken any data processing course, while the 1978 and…

This book examines the achievements of teachers from all over Great Britain in furthering their professional development. Part 1 presents four case studies of school-based inservice activities. The first is a teacher-initiated inservice activity in a middle school in West Sussex. The second is an Open University student-initiated inservice…

Researchers developed an instrument based on definitions of the variables of self-esteem, self-awareness, self-assertion, and acceptance of others to be used as outcome criteria to define and measure the outcomes of the Colorado Outward Bound School experience and to determine if the outcomes were caused by the program. The Outward Bound course…

A description and analysis of an unsuccessful secondary school evaluation in Australia is presented. The idea of a review originated with the vice principal and was received by the staff with minimal enthusiasm. Following the review, the staff agreed that nothing had been accomplished, and the reasons for the failure are summarized in this report.…

The objectives of the state-of-the-art paper, second in a series on farming systems research (FSR) in the Third World, are to: (1) review the literature on farming systems; (2) evaluate farming systems research in international institutes and in national agricultural research systems in the Third World; and (3) recommend what can be done to…

Woodrow Wilson Fellows and Dissertation Fellows elected between 1945 and 1971 were surveyed to trace their educational careers, judge the effectiveness of the selection process, and determine what they are now doing with their education. Some elements covered by other national studies were included to make possible a comparison of the Woodrow…

A problem solving course designed to expose the student to the wide range of alternative problem solving techniques and to enable the student to use these methods in practical applications was developed at the University of California at Los Angeles. The course also exposes the humanities student to objective tools such as numerical models, while…

This study explored the assumption that the percentile rank of a group of students should be expected to remain the same on a post-test as on a pretest when the treatment of the group in the intervening period was the same as the treatment of the norms population. This assumption is basic to the use of the norm-referenced model for the assessment…

A number of issues regarding educational evaluation and the problems associated with the practice of evaluation were discussed at a conference held in San Francisco, California, in 1976. Participants and persons submitting position papers included evaluators, administrators, teachers, educational researchers, parents, and students. Statements of…

The need for ensuring the educational quality of experiences pursued by practitioners to satisfy their continuing education requirements and the difficulties of evaluating the experiences are addressed. Because of financial constraints placed on state regulatory boards and state professional associations, neither is equipped to handle the…

The authors have written this manual to aid workers in the Cooperative Extension Service of the United States to be better able to understand and apply the principles and methods of evaluation. The manual contains three sections which cover the nature and place of evaluation in extension work, the evaluation process, and the uses of evaluation…

A rationale is presented for both investigating the context of educational organizations and building in a program renewal capacity as an essential operational component of every such organization. The findings of several program evaluation studies conducted at the University of Alberta's Faculty of Education are reviewed. These studies were…

Information on institutional research, planning, and evaluation is provided in 15 conference presentations. The papers included in the collection are: (1) "The Nature of Institutional Research in the Community College (CC)" by James L. Wattenbarger; (2) "The Range and Organization of Data for Research" by Richard L. Alfred; (3) "Research Methods…