This report summarizes the initial findings from the 2004-2005 evaluation study of the program titled Building Academic Vocabulary (BAV). The theory and research supporting the development of this program are articulated in "Building Background Knowledge for Academic Achievement" (Marzano, 2004). Briefly, the basic assumption underlying the BAV…

The College Board developed a program in the content areas of English and mathematics designed to prepare students for challenging content as early as grade 6 and extending through high school. Conceived with the goal of creating high-quality professional development activities with associated instructional strategies embedded in instructional…

Steele and Aronson (1995) found that the performance of African-American subjects on test items portrayed as a problem-solving task, in a laboratory experiment, was adversely affected when they were asked about their ethnicity. This outcome was attributed to "stereotype threat". Performance was disrupted by the subjects' concerns about…

Reports on an experimental investigation of the effects of a systematic, story-reading-aloud program on some language variables in preschool and first-grade children. Results indicate that both age groups significantly increased their language comprehension and expressions when listening to stories read aloud, either at home or at school. (25…

The paper presents the results of an evaluation research that studied the impact of a nationwide home intervention program, the Mother-Child Education Program, on both children and mothers immediately after the termination of the program and at the end of the children's first year of formal schooling. A pre/post control group quasiexperimental…

The "Science: It's Elementary" (SIE) program is overseen by the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) and managed by ASSET Inc. SIE is an initiative aimed at improving elementary science instruction across the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The program is focused on helping schools and districts implement an inquiry-based, hands-on…

This guidebook concentrates primarily on describing the impact-assessment component of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title I evaluation and reporting system for users of the system. Three general evaluation models are presented, along with implementation information for each. The first model, a norm-referenced design, may be…

The focus of future Follow Through research should be oriented toward showing what can be done in order to offer information to both federal and local planners on which systems of curriculum design, classroom management, and parent involvement appear to be most effective. To assure this goal, the issues of program efficacy and implementation…

This volume is the first of a series reporting evaluation findings on the impact of Project Developmental Continuity (PDC) on institutions, classroom staff, parents and children from the time the children entered Head Start through the first grade. PDC was begun in 1974 with the purpose of ensuring that disadvantaged children receive continuous…

IT WAS HYPOTHESIZED THAT 91 EXPERIMENTAL SUBJECTS FROM LOW SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS HOMES, PROVIDED WITH A CAREFULLY DESIGNED 2-YEAR VOCATIONALLY ORIENTED EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM AND PREVOCATIONAL DIVISION OF VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION (DVR) COUNSELING, WOULD HAVE SIGNIFICANTLY SUPERIOR ACHIEVEMENT TO THAT OF A MATCHED CONTROL GROUP ENROLLED IN A REGULAR…

THIS EXTENSIVE TWO-VOLUME REPORT DESCRIBES THE IMPACT OF A CURRICULUM UNIT ON THE AMERICAN NEGRO WHICH WAS PRESENTED TO NEGRO AND WHITE PUPILS IN 19 INTEGRATED FOURTH-GRADE CLASSROOMS IN THE GARY, INDIANA, PUBLIC SCHOOLS. THE EXPERIMENTAL UNIT WAS NOT TAUGHT TO A CONTROL GROUP OF SEVEN FOURTH-GRADE CLASSES. SINCE AN ADDITIONAL OBJECTIVE OF THE…

The major purpose of this study was to test the effects on later employment of having a high school diploma or having skill training but no diploma. This report is limited to the immediate effects of two experimental programs for dropouts. Four groups of students were utilized: (1) the diploma group of 115 students who had dropped out of school…

This project was composed of two major research experiments and four subsidiary experiments, designed to test alternative ways of constructing and applying occupational problem-solving materials. In Part I, Difficulty Level of Simulated Vocational Problems in Encouraging Career Exploration, it was found that the difficulty level did significantly…

This study addressed the need for empirical tests of the global instructional design (ID) model as a toolkit for classroom teachers in authentic settings; and the performance improvement challenge of finding effective, efficient methods of professional development for preparing graduate assistants to teach. Participants were eighteen teaching…

The authors compared traditional and Web-based versions of an environmental education program in terms of their effectiveness in raising knowledge and promoting attitudes of environmental issues. They used a pretest-posttest nonequivalent control group quasi-experimental design. Results showed a statistically significant increase of knowledge…