Career Initiation in Association with Alienation from Secondary Schools. B. Measures for the Evaluation of a Model.

The project's goal was to enhance the outside evaluation of the Opportunities Industrialization Center's Career Intern Program (CIP) with supplementary, criterion-referenced assessment measures identified through a literature review and an analysis of CIP's goals. The review (presented separately) referred to over 100 programs of dropout prevention and vocational development for the disadvantaged; in reports having an evaluation component, assessment measures have been identified. Described in the document, these are not limited to criterion-referenced techniques, which were infrequently found. Measures tended to be obvious and already included in the CIP package. Unique measures are discussed in the document within the framework of a generalized evaluation model, constructed to place the data from literature in perspective and to determine the requirements for additional assessment measures. In general, the document concludes, the measures found in the literature were related to specific, short-term program expectations, based on immediate program outcomes, and not empirically tied to ultimate, long-range goals; the data presented incomplete and fragmented pictures of programs' progress and success. A new approach is suggested, which asks not whether the program objectives have been met, but whether they were the correct objectives: "What have we really done for this individual?" (Author/AJ)