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Learning from Experience: Evaluating Early Childhood Demonstration Programs
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During the last two decades, public and private programs for young children and their families have undergone profound changes. Programs and philosophies have proliferated. Program objectives have broadened. Federal support has increased: Projected expenditures for child care and preschool education alone neared $3 billion several years ago. Target populations have expanded and diversified, as have the constituencies affected by programs; such constituencies reach beyond the target populations themselves. A sizable evaluation enterprise has grown along with the expansion in programs. Formal outcome measurement has gained increasing acceptance as a tool for policy analysis, as a test of accountability, and to some extent as a guide for improving program practices. Programs have been subjected to scrutiny from all sides, as parents, practitioners, and politicians have become increasingly sophisticated about methods and issues that once were the exclusive preserve of the researcher. At the same time, evaluation has come under attack—some of it politically motivated, some of it justified. Professionals question the technical quality of evaluations, while parents, practitioners, and policy makers complain that studies fail to address their concerns or to reflect program realities. Improvements in evaluation design and outcome measurement have failed to keep pace with the evolution of programs, widening the gap between what is measured and what programs actually do.
Jeffrey R. Travers and Richard J. Light - Personal Name
0-309-54060-7
NONE
Management
English
1-285
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