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A study conducted of Title I evaluation practices in urban districts which comprised the membership of the Council of the Great City Schools and to identify special problems related to Title I evaluation, as well as make recommendations for improving evaluation practices, is presented. The report contains the following sections: I. Evaluation of Title I Projects: Problems and Needs; II. Summary of On-Site Visits: Procedure and Results; III. Summary of Questionnaire Results; IV. Summary of Conference Results; and Appendixes. The appendixes are: Combined Questionnaire for Research Directors and Title I Coordinators; Lake Placid Conference. (DB)

A major concern in planning for and beginning the operation of the National Institute of Education is the organization's management information system (MIS). The kind of MIS needed by NIE is referred to in the literature as a "fourth generation" system--one which focuses on the decision process and which is developed in terms of maximum usefulness in management decision and control. At this stage in NIE planning, a number of general information needs can be identified. The most difficult to supply are those related to support of goal and priority setting and policy determination at the top management levels. Other clear needs relate to descriptive capability and the development of components for providing state-of-the-art information and for keeping track of ongoing programmatic efforts. Other modules must produce feedback on organizational operation, financial/accounting information, and data on the resources (other than budgetary) available to NIE. (Author/WM)

Discussed are the difficulties of implementing research findings in elementary schools; i.e. effecting a change at the level of interaction between teacher and pupil. An inherent difficulty is communicating research findings to the people in the local school systems who must act on them. The author states that even if this is remedied the following problem remains: convincing a person to act on what is to him unfamiliar information and to change his behavior when he has no readily apparent investment in the change. To solve this problem the author proposes involving teachers to the extent that they feel a part of the investigations and have some investment in their outcomes. From his own experiences he cites three ways in which this may be accomplished; the use of demonstration centers as training sites, getting as many teachers as possible actively involved in the research project, and urging teachers to try individual research studies within their own classrooms. (Author/CT)

This presentation clarifies the role of evaluation in public schools and discusses major problems which block the effectiveness of the role. Evaluation is used in schools to produce information that helps decision makers choose among alternative courses of action. Purpose, rather than methodology, distinguishes evaluation from research. The need for care, precision, and logical thought, however, is common to both. One set of major problems is technical and involves such things as measurement and choice of appropriate analysis techniques. A second set revolves around the need for decision makers to follow a rational approach and to avoid reverting to "gut" feelings in every stress situation. Finally, evaluators must produce pertinent information, in the most useful format, at key points in time. (Author)

THIS REPORT, BY MEANS OF NUMEROUS STATISTICAL TABLES ANALYZING THE RESULTS OF SPEAKING AND LISTENING COMPREHENSION TESTS, EXPLORES THE RELATIVE EFFECTIVENESS OF VARIOUS INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNIQUES USED TO SUPPLEMENT THE BASIC TELEVISED INSTRUCTION FOR FIFTH- AND SIXTH-GRADE SPANISH PUPILS, AND THE INTERACTION EXISTING AMONG VARIOUS COMBINATIONS OF TECHNIQUES. FOR FIFTH-GRADE PUPILS, THE BASIC 15 MINUTES EACH OF TELEVISED INSTRUCTION AND ECLECTIC CLASSROOM PRACTICE WERE SUPPLEMENTED IN THREE RESEARCH GROUPS RESPECTIVELY BY (1) ELECTRONIC AIDS, (2) A SECOND VIEWING AT HOME, AND (3) BOTH METHODS. BY FAR THE STRONGEST FACTOR INFLUENCING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF EACH METHOD WAS THE PRIOR TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE OF THE CLASSROOM TEACHER. SIXTH-GRADE RESULTS YIELDED THE FOLLOWING CONCLUSIONS--(1) THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ELECTRONIC AIDS DEPENDED ON THE TEACHER'S EXPERIENCE, (2) FOR READING AND WRITING, TEACHER DIRECTION PROVED FAR SUPERIOR TO AUTOMATED INSTRUCTION, AND ALSO INCREASED THE VALUE OF ELECTRONIC AIDS, (3) READING AND WRITING THE WHOLE YEAR IS DEFINITELY SUPERIOR TO READING AND WRITING THE SECOND SEMESTER ONLY. FOR COMPANION DOCUMENTS SEE ALSO FL 000 147, FL 000 813, AND FL 000 820. (RW)

DURING THE FIRST THREE YEARS OF THE PROJECT, PARENTS OF FIFTH-GRADE SPANISH STUDENTS WERE INVITED TO PARTICIPATE BY VIEWING THE TELEVISED INSTRUCTION WITH THE CHILD, PRACTICING SPANISH WITH HIM AT HOME, AND USING THE PARENT GUIDEBOOK AND PHONOGRAPH RECORD PROVIDED FOR THE COURSE. THE SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN OF PARENT PARTICIPANTS ON LISTENING COMPREHENSION TESTS CLEARLY INDICATED THAT IN THIS WAY PARENTS CAN ENHANCE THEIR CHILDREN'S LEARNING, BUT A PRECISE UNDERSTANDING OF THE FACTORS INVOLVED WAS LACKING. ACCORDINGLY, A QUESTIONNAIRE ADMINISTERED IN FACE-TO-FACE INTERVIEWS WITH 200 PARENT PARTICIPANTS OBTAINED INFORMATION ON THE EXTENT OF INVOLVEMENT IN EACH OF THE ACTIVITIES, ATTITUDES TOWARD THE PROGRAM AND ITS EFFECT ON FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS, AND DEMOGRAPHIC DATA. NUMEROUS TABLES PRESENTED HERE EXPLORE THE SIGNIFICANCE AND INTERRELATIONSHIPS EXISTING AMONG ALL THESE FACTORS, AND YIELD THE FOLLOWING GENERAL CONCLUSIONS--(1) PARENT PARTICIPATION IMPROVED STUDENTS' PERFORMANCE EVEN WHEN ISOLATED FROM BACKGROUND FACTORS, AND PRODUCED A GENERAL MOTIVATIONAL INCREASE WHICH AFFECTED THEIR TOTAL SCHOOL PERFORMANCE, (2) IT TENDED TO INCREASE FAMILY UNITY, (3) PARENTS' EDUCATION AND PREVIOUS TRAINING IN SPANISH WERE THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTORS AFFECTING PARTICIPATION. FOR COMPANION DOCUMENTS SEE ALSO FL 000 147, FL 000 813, AND FL 000 821. (RW)

THIS FINAL PHASE OF THE PROJECT (FOR THE ORIGINAL STUDY SEE FL 000 147) WAS AN ATTEMPT TO REACH BEYOND THE FORMAL EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN TO ANSWER A NUMBER OF PEDAGOGICAL QUESTIONS NOT EASILY EXPLORED WITHIN ITS LIMITATIONS. SEVEN TEACHERS WERE GIVEN FREE REIN TO SUPPLEMENT THE INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS ALREADY IN USE FOR SIXTH-GRADE SPANISH PUPILS. THESE "TOMORROW'S CLASSROOM" (TC) TEACHERS PROVED MOST IMAGINATIVE AND PRODUCTIVE, AND DEMONSTRATED THE VALUE OF THE CLASSROOM TEACHER MORE DRAMATICALLY THAN DID ANY OTHER PHASE OF THE PROJECT. THE VARIETY OF INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNIQUES AND MATERIALS DEVISED BY EACH, AND THEIR TEACHING BACKGROUNDS, ARE PRESENTED IN CAREFUL DETAIL IN THE MAIN SECTION OF THIS REPORT. TEST RESULTS (A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS IS GIVEN) SHOW THE VALUE OF THIS TYPE OF INSTRUCTION--THE TC PUPILS OUTPERFORMED THE REGULAR GROUPS IN READING AND WRITING BY A FACTOR OF 25 PERCENT. THE PROJECT YIELDED DETAILED RECOMMENDATIONS ABOUT (1) THE NEED FOR VARIETY IN AUDIO-LINGUAL AND READING-WRITING INSTRUCTION, FOR AN ELIMINATION OF AN ARTIFICIAL SEPARATION OF THE TWO, AND (2) THE VALUE OF TAPE RECORDERS, PROGRAMED INSTRUCTION, INTER-PUPIL COMMUNICATION, AND CULTURAL STUDY. FOR COMPANION DOCUMENTS SEE ALSO FL 000 820 AND FL 000 821. (RW)