The effectiveness of motivational enhancement therapy (MET) in comparison with counseling as usual (CAU) for increasing retention and reducing substance use was evaluated in a multisite randomized clinical trial. Participants were 461 outpatients treated by 31 therapists within 1 of 5 outpatient substance abuse programs. There were no retention…

Community organizing for school reform is a growing national phenomenon, as young people, parents, neighborhood residents, and faith-based institutions struggle to improve the quality and equity of public schooling, particularly in urban school districts. Now a decade old, community organizing projects are influencing local public schools in…

Can teaching technologies offer a unique avenue for senior faculty vitality and renewal? This article presents the results of an evaluation that took place during six years of a teaching technology faculty development program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a research-intensive institution. We present a profile of the program and its…

The development of a national youth work training package in Australia began over 15 years ago. The current package sits under the umbrella of the general Community Services Industry Training Package. The first stage of a review of this package has been completed and the subsequent report not only confirms the recent trend towards the…

School-university partnerships are not uni-dimensional projects. Success in these partnerships can be found in loosely-coupled systems such as client-server partnerships and in more tightly-coupled systems such as collaborative development centers. Using a comparative case study approach, we explore two school-university partnership case studies…

An evaluation model for workplace literacy programs was developed and applied at two industrial plants. Development of the model included a literature review and consultation with plant managers. The model included interviews, questionnaires, Cloze tests, class observation, plant-gathered productivity indexes, and supervisor ratings. The…

A study examined Ohio Even Start programs and their attempts to create integrated curricula within their programs. A survey was sent to all Even Start programs. Results indicated that: (1) most of the programs defined their integrated curricula in terms of the themes they designated as focal points (such as consumer skills, child discipline,…

This document consists of four consecutive annual program evaluation reports covering the years 1991-92, 1992-93, 1993-94, 1994-95, respectively. These reports detail the results of the annual product evaluation of the federally funded Chapter 1 prekindergarten program of the Saginaw, Michigan School District. The purpose of the prekindergarten…

Outcomes of a restructuring program implemented in the Fluvanna County High School, Help Instructional Growth Happen, are reported in this paper. Program goals were to: (1) establish a cooperative steering committee; (2) develop a cooperative learning language; and (3) implement interdisciplinary teacher teams. Three areas were…

A study designed a model for evaluating college writing programs by means of an analysis of the most important component, students. The study was conducted at the University of South Carolina Coastal Carolina College and involved first-year students. Subjects, six students who scored one (on a scale from one to four) on the holistically scored…

A study examined the competitive, financial, and programmatic characteristics of the top 50 forensics programs in the United States. Surveys were sent in 1978, 1983, 1987, and 1992 to the programs that met this definition. Criteria for identification of the "top" 50 differed slightly for each survey (based on different measures of…

This handbook has been written to enable schools and community agency staff to carry out required evaluations under the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act. However, its applicability is not restricted to programs supported through that Act. The handbook describes the why and how of program evaluation and outlines the steps in conducting…

This paper offers a synthesis of the existing research on school-based mediation or conflict-resolution programs. Studies of programs in the following six areas are described: Poughkeepsie, New York; New Mexico; Colorado Springs, Colorado; New York City; Chatham County, North Carolina; and Greenfield, Massachusetts. The following elements of each…

New federal proposals have fueled national interest in class-size reduction (CSR). However, CSR raises numerous concerns, some of which are addressed in this policy brief. The text draws on the experiences of states and districts that have implemented CSR. The brief addresses the following 15 concerns: Do small classes in and of themselves affect…

The USAID/Malawi (Africa) Girls' Attainment in Basic Literacy and Education (GABLE) project emphasized girls' participation in schooling within a broader systemic effort to address efficiency and school quality in the Malawian primary education system. Important features of GABLE were a fee-waiver program for non-repeating primary girls to attract…