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Programs for At-Risk Students: A Guide to Evaluation

NCJ Number
149458
Author(s)
R G O'Sullivan; C V Tennant
Date Published
1993
Length
90 pages
Annotation
This guide is designed to school personnel working with school- and community-based programs serving at-risk students in preschool grades through high school. Programs described here range from dropout prevention to academic reinforcement for students at risk of school failure.
Abstract
This booklet provides six specific examples of how school personnel might evaluate components of these programs, including students' needs assessment, identification of students for program participation, evaluation of the program's efficacy in improving students' attitudes toward school, individualized instruction, the use of written questionnaires by school staff, and parent involvement in the program. Each vignette contains a description of the program setting and an evaluation focus, a discussion of alternative evaluation strategies, a description of information collection techniques, an analysis and summary of the information collected, and an interpretation of how evaluation results might be used.