Demonstrates how alumni research can be designed to focus program assessment on student outcomes and be responsive to program goals, administrators' policy concerns, faculty instructional values, and professional practice standards. Based on study of 347 teacher education master's degree recipients, the paper presents a conceptual framework and…

Expectations for family involvement and professional behavior are different when working with families of children who use adaptive technology than they are with families of other children with special needs. The article addresses some of the differences, describing family and professional roles in assessment, interpersonal communication,…

Describes three types of functional assessment of young children with special needs: play-based, family interviews, and the evaluation of multiple intelligences. Claims that all three types are useful for planning developmentally appropriate interventions and are positive because the emphasis is on the children's and their families' strengths…

Describes the implementation in one British school district of a model auditing system that takes curriculum as its starting point. Although the model drives the local educational authority funding formula, its educational importance is at the school level. Its implementation in a special secondary school for students with severe, profound, and…

A survey of 32 department heads at Rhodes University (South Africa) found that in just over half the departments, students were given the opportunity to evaluate course content and presentation, and department heads were favorably disposed toward the system. Two issues deemed important in institutionalization of course evaluation were methods for…

Using distance learning techniques and the World Wide Web, the U.S. Army War College has developed a computer-based intelligent tutorial that leads students through an assessment of the world, focusing on principal characteristics of one of six major geographical regions. Describes the disciplined analysis methodology and the World Wide Web as a…

Discusses a method of implementing the computer algebra system DERIVE for diagnosis and remediation of basic difficulties in mathematics. Learning activities for junior high school students were developed, each directed at a different area of difficulty. The basic strategy implemented in these activities is replicating and completing examples.…

Discussion of the evaluation and ranking of degree programs of library and information science at ALA (American Library Association) accredited schools focuses on a study of faculty authorship in "Library Literature" as a measure of productivity. Doctoral programs, Association of Research Libraries affiliation, and Carnegie I research…

Explains the use of instructional design with a mastery learning strategy (IDML) in teaching mathematics. The IDML model, a combination of other theories including Gagne's instructional events, has been used to improve mathematics instruction in Malaysian schools, and includes developing test items, the teachers' development of learning materials,…

Describes the results of a classroom trial activity to encourage communication in mathematics. Students were asked to write a short story or a joke or to create a cartoon about an aspect of mathematics, which was in this case isolating the variable or property of negative 1. The activity revealed creativity and allowed the teacher to determine how…

The factor structure and scale characteristics of a shortened version of the Social Competence and Behavior Evaluation Scale (SCBE) are presented for a Quebec (Canada) sample of 910 preschoolers and three U.S. samples totaling 1,736. Also presented are age and gender differences in preschool emotional and behavioral problems. (SLD)

Describes a community asset assessment used as a mechanism for reaching and engaging an undervalued community. Latino adolescents were placed in leadership roles as assessment interviewers in a Puerto Rican community. Discusses challenges and implications for involvement of Latino youths in school and human-services agency asset research. (LSR)

In this commentary on a previous article that revealed modest and inconsistent results of the Parents as Teachers program, program evaluation work is urged to move beyond simply measuring intervention outcomes to examining the complex interactions between family and child characteristics, intervention goals addressed, processes employed by…

In this commentary on a previous article that revealed modest and inconsistent results of the Parents as Teachers program, issues are highlighted that those involved in real-world evaluation need to consider. Study attrition, defining meaningful primary outcomes, and need to use a participatory approach to develop outcome-based interventions are…

The use of a self-monitoring strategy to increase on-task behavior was examined with a post-institutionalization 13-year-old child included in a regular school in Ireland. A functional assessment conducted prior to the intervention indicated the student engaged stereotypy unless involved in academic tasks. After implementation of the intervention,…