Increasingly, public officials in California and across the nation want to know, or at least be reassured, that public investments in what had traditionally been called university outreach programs are having desired effects on student achievement and college preparedness among targeted student groups. For the most part, such programs are now commonly referred to as academic preparation programs. Given the Governor's 2004-05 budget proposal to reduce state support for these preparation programs, concerns about program effectiveness, as well as questions regarding which specific groups of students should be benefited by scarce public resources, have become even more important to lawmakers. This Prospectus summarizes the results of recent outreach evaluative studies conducted independently since 1990 by the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC), the Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) research group, and the Strategic Review Panel on UC Educational Outreach. Following the summary, a mixed methods evaluative framework is outlined, which the Commission believes could be used to make more in depth assessments of the short-term and long term effects of preparation programs for public accountability purposes.