The choice of methods is part of the overall evaluation design process. The process consists of the following steps: (1) analyzing the problem context; (2) asking a few general questions; (3) selecting the methods (strategies) to use; and (4) selecting the specific techniques (tactics) to use. To operate successfully the evaluator needs to know…

The amount of misreporting of Veterans Administration (VA) benefits was assessed, along with the impact of misreporting on the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant (BEOG) program. Accurate financial information is need to determine appropriate awards. The analysis revealed: over 97% of VA beneficiaries misreported benefits; the total net loss to…

The purpose of this guide is to provide local Head Start program decision-makers with a tool that will be useful in developing needs assessments appropriate to their communities, whether urban or rural. Although the guide focused on community needs assessments for planning mainstream services for children with handicapping conditions, its…

A timely and coordinated system to conduct placement and followup studies was developed by Hillsborough Community College. The project was intended to increase the response rate of program completers and leavers and the placement rate of program completers in order to meet the placement rate set by the 1983 Florida legislation. Vocational faculty…

This document describes a supplemental survey of staff in approximately half of the original sample of 1,015 schools that participated in the base year survey of the High School and Beyond Survey (HSB). The survey was designed to obtain measures of school goals and processes that effective schools literature indicates are important in achieving…

The purpose of the computerized Reading Program Management System is to assist reading specialists of the District Heights Elementary School (Maryland) to perform four specific reading program tasks: placement, grouping, monitoring, and materials supply. The system uses a general purpose, commercial data management software package called DB…

In response to the current intensified public interest in education, some professional organizations have undertaken to draft public policy responses. These responses are constrained by a variety of issues. When practitioner task forces analyze policy under time constraints, they face issues in policy definition, and the definition used affects…

The field methods for data collection in a research project on linguistic change and variation in the Philadelphia speech community, their origins and use, are described. Five working principles of the project are detailed: (1) there are no single style speakers; (2) styles can be ranged along a single dimension, according to the attention paid to…

The data collection program of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) should be designed for maximum reliability, validity, and manageability for all involved organizations. An adequate number of school districts should be sampled to produce useful data. Data should be more comparable between states if proper sampling techniques are…

To assess the condition of American education in the next decade, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) should focus on collecting data in the following major areas: (1) the quality and quantity of time that is allocated to various activities in the classroom; (2) the concerns of teachers, including their working conditions and time…

This guide is designed to help educators plan and carry out evaluations of adult education programs. It describes some of the more common approaches to program evaluation that can easily be adapted to and implemented by adult education programs. The guide is organized in 10 sections. Following an introduction and overview in section 1, section 2…

This manual was produced to familiarize data users with the procedures followed in data collection and processing of the fifth follow-up survey of the National Longitudinal Survey of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS-72) and to provide documentation for use of the file. The data file is a computerized data base, which is available on magnetic…

The evaluation criteria and procedures described in this report were developed at the Community College of Philadelphia (CCP) for conducting audits of the college's programs, disciplines, and support services. Part I provides an introduction to the audit process, which involves the following steps: (1) identification of curricular areas to be…

This descriptive study was conducted to evaluate the relative emphasis secondary school teachers place on the science teaching goals of the 1960s which focused on processes and techniques designed to produce scientists, as compared to the goals of the 1980s which give priority to the relationship of science and technology to society. An eight-item…

This report describes a pilot project to develop a Cooperative System for Public Library Data Collection, which would enable the Center for Education Statistics (CES) of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement to issue national statistical reports on public libraries by using data collected by state library agencies in their annual…