ERIC Number: ED132741
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1976-Nov
Pages: 585
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Educational R&D and the Case of Berkeley's Experimental Schools. Volume I: A Summative Evaluation of the Berkeley Experimental Schools Project. Volume II: The Life and Fate of Individual Alternative Schools in the Berkeley Experimental Schools Project. Final Report.
Scientific Analysis Corp., San Francisco, CA.
Summative and formative evaluation of the Berkeley Experimental Schools Project (BESP) are summarized in this two-volume document. In Volume I, the evaluators answer the specific evaluative questions posed by the National Institute of Education, the primary funding agency for the alternative schools project. Out of an initial 23 alternative schools, only two programs survived the five years of BESP. The evaluators conclude that this educational alternatives program failed to produce the "comprehensive change" in the Berkeley school district that it was supposed to produce. Although community involvement in the experimental schools project was fairly high at first, in the end the degree of involvement was no higher than in traditional public schools. The experimental schools also failed to achieve the "racial-economic-academic mix for students and staff" that they set out to achieve. In Volume II, the evaluators deal with the larger issues raised by the application of federal research and development to education. They conclude that a lack of coordination between the federal funding agency and the local Berkeley school district, including a difference in definition of educational change, led to what might be described as a $6 million misunderstanding. (Author/DS)
Descriptors: Community Involvement, Educational Change, Educational Development, Educational Programs, Educational Research, Elementary Secondary Education, Experimental Programs, Formative Evaluation, Nontraditional Education, Program Evaluation, Racial Integration, Research Projects, Summative Evaluation
Publication Type: Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: N/A
Sponsor: National Inst. of Education (DHEW), Washington, DC.
Authoring Institution: Scientific Analysis Corp., San Francisco, CA.
Identifiers - Location: California (Berkeley)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A