The terms "outcome" and "impact" are ubiquitous in evaluation discourse. However, there are many competing definitions that lack clarity and consistency and sometimes represent fundamentally different meanings. This leads to profound confusion, undermines efforts to improve learning and accountability, and represents a…

There are unique challenges to estimating causal effects of preschool for students with special needs that have not received attention in the literature. We revisit the Head Start Impact Study (HSIS) to illustrate that when and how special needs is defined has implications for the internal validity of and interpretation of special needs subgroup…

Developed to be a standard reference guide, this glossary contains terms generally associated with program evaluation and terms specifically employed in rehabilitation program evaluation. Target audiences include rehabilitation program evaluation personnel and the consumers of evaluation information such as program administrators, counselors, and…

Four pairs of concepts important for the descriptions of the language or form of objective statements are described. The paper addresses itself to a set of questions concerning the relations between the form of educational objectives and the function which those objectives serve. The concept pairs considered are general-specific,…

This document is intended to guide further education colleges and work-based learning providers through some of the commonly used tools, techniques, and theories of quality management. The following are among the topics discussed: (1) various ways of defining quality; methods used by organizations to achieve quality (quality control, quality…