Dimensions of utilization and types of evaluation approaches

The growing interest in program evaluation is related to the various uses that such studies are expected to serve, including: influencing budget decisions, serving as a medium of accountability, facilitating policymaking, and guiding managerial decisions regarding program design and delivery. There are also some uses which are not generally publicly acknowledge such as: to whitewash programs, to purposefully destroy them, and to postpone needed action.The need for understanding various interpretations of utilization is reflected in the different conclusions that writers have drawn about the extent to which evaluation findings are utilized. Those who claim that evaluation findings have not been utilized tend to view utilization as the immediate and direct use of evaluation findings for decisionmaking. On the other hand, those who view utilization as having more modest uses (e.g., prodding action or providing added assurance) tend to produce evidence that program evaluation has been widely utilized in decision making.This paper will examine utilization primarily from the viewpoint of decisionmaking. This focus will serve as the basis for demonstrating how the meaning of utilization differs according to the purpose(s) and methodology of the evaluation study conducted.     

Development of oral reading fluency in children with speech or language impairments: a growth curve analysis

This longitudinal study used piece-wise growth curve analyses to examine growth patterns in oral reading fluency for 1,991 students with speech impairments (SI) or language impairments (LI) from first through third grade. The main finding of this study was that a diagnosis of SI or LI can have a detrimental and persistent effect on early reading skills. Results indicated differences between subgroups in growth trajectories that were evident in first grade. A large proportion of students with SI or LI did not meet grade-level reading fluency benchmarks. Overall students with SI showed better performance than students with LI. Reading fluency performance was negatively related to the persistence of the SI or LI; the lowest performing students were those originally identified with SI or LI whose diagnosis changed to a learning disability. The results underscore the need to identify, monitor, and address reading fluency difficulties early among students with SI or LI.     

Copyright and you

Trademark, copyright and patent protections are necessary concerns in education and training, not only from an economic perspective, but for many other reasons. For example, Georgia Crown Distributing Co. was hired by the University of Georgia Alumni Association to distribute bottles of wine bearing the university’s logo     

The effects of response format of a structured learning sequence on third grade children's classification achievement

Classification was selected for use in this investigation because of the central position of process factors in teaching and learning. A twelve section classification program which was based on 12 rules derived from Piaget's analysis of classification was used in the study. The program was produced in both a constructed response (CR) format and in a matching multiple choice (MC) response format. The 36-item classification test was similarly produced in both response modes. Criterion scores on both the CR test and the MC test were collected from each of the 239 grade three subjects following treatment with the CR program, the MC program, or with drawing activities (control). The results of the multivariate and univariate analyses of variance indicated that the program in both response modes enhanced classification achievement although the effects on MC test scores were not consistent across classes, and that each program format enhanced achievement to a greater degree on the test which matched the program response mode.     

A longitudinal investigation of direct and indirect links between reading skills in kindergarten and reading comprehension in tenth grade

In this study, researchers examined the extent to which several fundamental measures of reading proficiency from kindergarten students (N = 3180) were linked to reading comprehension in tenth grade while controlling for third grade vocabulary and oral reading fluency. Analyses tested the direct and indirect relations between and among kindergarten, third grade, and tenth grade measures. Results showed significant direct effects from kindergarten nonsense word fluency and letter naming fluency to tenth grade reading comprehension, along with significant indirect effects of kindergarten nonsense word fluency and vocabulary to tenth grade reading comprehension. Findings suggest that fundamental precursors maintain strong impact upon reading comprehension into the secondary school years. These findings are discussed along with implications for interventions and ideas for future research.     

When Reforms Travel: The Sequel

In a previous paper, we described the process in which a reform, grown in the soil of one school district (Community District #2 in New York City) was transplanted to new soil, a new context (the San Diego City Schools). In this paper we examine the condition of the reform 6 years later, at the time Anthony Alvarado, the architect of the reform in New York City and its transplant to San Diego, left the San Diego City Schools, and a new phase of reform was underway. From 1998 through 2002, the San Diego City Schools engaged in a dramatic, daring, and possibly unprecedented reform. Their overarching goal was expressed consistently in terms of student learning. To achieve that commendable goal, the District instituted a content-driven, centralized, comprehensive, and fast-paced reform in 1998. We discuss the tensions that were produced when the ambitiousness of a reform outpaced the capacity of educators to carry it out; when the values, norms, and beliefs of teachers and principals col These developments have consequences for our assessment of how reforms travel from one district to another. Reforms that were developed for and proved their effectiveness in elementary settings appear to have limited transferability to middle and high school settings because elementary students’ learning trajectories are different from adolescents and the organizations of high schools are very different from elementary schools. And reforms that privilege the technical dimension of school reform must always be sensitive to the way that interacts with the political and cultural dimensions.     

Differential acquisition of discriminated autoshaping as a function of stimulus qualities and locations

In each of two experiments, different groups of pigeons were required to discriminate between one of two basic kinds of stimulus differences: stimulus quality or stimulus location. For stimulus-quality groups, a key was illuminated by one of two colors on trials ending with food delivery and by the other color on trials ending with no food. For stimulus-location groups, a key was illuminated at one of two locations on trials ending with food delivery and at the other location on trials ending with no food. The birds began to respond differentially to the stimuli (i.e., peck the keys on food trials and not peck the keys on no-food trials) earlier in acquisiton if the stimulus qualities served as the signals for trial outcomes than if the stimulus locations served as those signals. The results from both experiments are consistent with predictions from a hypothesis regarding interactions among the qualities and locations of stimuli and responses (the “quality-location hypothesis”). Furthermore, the present results support other recent demonstrations of the important role that spatial relations among stimuli can play in classical conditioning.     

Introducting Statistics to the General Public

A tasting experiment involving members of the public was used to illustrate aspects of the work of a statistician in a research environment.     

From scripted instruction to teacher empowerment: supporting literacy teachers to make pedagogical transitions

The article describes a longitudinal professional development project in rural Florida (USA) schools that supports the efforts of inservice teachers to make pedagogical transitions from total reliance on prepackaged commercial programmes to making informed decisions about curriculum and pedagogy autonomously. It demonstrates that in order to initiate and sustain qualitative changes in teaching practices, conscious efforts must be made to address a multitude of barriers at the administrative, professional and personal levels. It suggests that professional development efforts in education must recognise the complex, multifaceted and lifelong nature of becoming and being an effective literacy teacher.