Eisenhower Professional Development Program

Does Professional Development Change Teaching Practice? Results from a Three-Year Study
The national Evaluation of the Eisenhower Professional Development Program is the third in a series of reports from the multi-year Eisenhower evaluation. This report focuses on the effects of professional development on improving classroom teaching practice. Drawing on longitudinal data from a sample of approximately 300 teachers, this report expands our knowledge about the impact of the types of professional development activities supported by the Eisenhower Professional Development Program.
  Executive Summary available in PDF (48K) and MS Word (98K)
  Report available in PDF (440K) and MS Word (1.1 MB)

Designing Effective Professional Development: Lessons from the Eisenhower Professional Development Program
This is the second publication from the congressionally mandated National Evaluation of the Eisenhower Professional Program that is being conducted under contract by the American Institutes for Research (AIR). The report describes the program operations and the quality of Eisenhower activities across the country. It also provides data on the self-reported effects of teachers' experiences in Eisenhower activities.

Executive Summary and Full Report (1999)

Magnet Schools Assistance Program

Evaluation of the Magnet Schools Assistance Program, 1998 Grantees: Year 1 Interim Report
This report focuses on the 57 districts funded by the Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP) for the school years 1998-99, 1999-2000, and 2000-01, and on the 292 magnet schools supported by MSAP in those districts. The first report of a four-year evaluation by the American Institutes for Research, it provides descriptive information about the MSAP-supported districts and schools: their desegregation and achievement objectives, the systemic reforms they are designed to support, and the innovative methods and practices they are implementing. The report includes information gathered from documents submitted to the U.S. Department of Education and the results of MSAP project director interviews, project surveys, and principal surveys and enrolment data from the National Center for Education Statistics' Common Core of Data. Future reports will present data on the extent to which the desegregation and achievement objectives have been met and will include case studies of eight of the MSAP projects.

Executive Summary, Report Highlights, and Full Report (2001)

Educational Innovation in Multiracial Contexts: The Growth of Magnet Schools in American Education
Magnet schools represent an effort to promote school desegregation and enhance educational quality. The federal government has provided substantial support for magnet schools through the Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP), which has distributed over $739 million since 1985 to support the development and implementation of new magnet programs and the expansion of existing programs.

Report Highlights (1994)

Public Charter Schools Program

Evaluation of the Public Charter Schools Program: Year One Evaluation Report 2000
The Year 1 data in this report paint a comprehensive picture of a number of issues: the development of the Public Charter Schools Program, state and charter school authorizer perspectives on charter school flexibility and accountability, and the charter school activities of states and a sample of charter school authorizers. This picture, however, is also a "snapshot" of a rapidly evolving movement during a narrow time interval (summer and fall 1999).

• Evaluation of the Public Charter Schools Program: Year One Evaluation Report 2000
  PDF - Main Report [252Kb], PDF - Appendices [356Kb].
  Word - Main Report [816Kb], Word - Appendices [356Kb].

Comprehensive Regional Assistance Centers Program

Final Report on the Evaluation
The evaluation of the Comprehensive Centers addressed two basic questions:

   How are the Comprehensive Centers fulfilling their statutory mission, as embodied in Title XIII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended in 1994; and,

   How does the centers' work contribute to educational change and improvement in the states, districts, and schools that they serve?

The evaluation includes surveys of customers to determine if they are satisfied with their access to and the quality of Comprehensive Center services. The Executive Summary features the key findings of the evaluation.

  Executive Summary is available in PDF (147K) and MS Word (192K)

Volume I: Final Report on the Evaluation synthesizes the information gathered by the evaluation.

  Report available in PDF (542K) and MS Word (969K)

Volume II: Case Studies of Center Services to State and Local Sites and Case Studies of Collaborative Activities contains case studies of center services to states, districts, and schools, and profiles of collaboration among centers and other technical assistance providers.

  Report available in PDF (489K) and MS Word (743K)

Volume III: Comprehensive Center Profiles describes the mission and goals, organization and staffing, needs assessment strategies, portfolio of services, and collaboration activities with other technical assistance providers, for each of the 15 centers.

  Report available in PDF (248K) and MS Word (413K)

Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program

Wide Scope, Questionable Quality: Three Reports from the Study on School Violence and Prevention
These three reports, along with an Executive Summary, provide findings from the Study on School Violence and Prevention. The study was funded by the U.S. Department of Education (and conducted in collaboration with the National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice) to investigate the extent of problem behavior in schools nationally and several aspects of delinquency prevention efforts in schools, such as the types and quality of prevention efforts, how schools plan and use information about prevention options to improve their own efforts and school management, and sources of funding for school prevention activities.

This study, conducted by Westat for the Planning and Evaluation Service of the U.S. Department of Education (ED), examined how districts plan, implement, and evaluate their Safe and Drug-Free Schools (SDFS) programs. SDFS supports school-based education to promote safe and orderly learning environments and to prevent youth drug use and violence. The study focused on the State Education Agency part of the State Grants program, as implemented at the school district level. Because it collected data on the 1997-98 school year, the study provides a baseline for gauging progress in district implementation of the SDFS "Principles of Effectiveness," which since July 1998 have required that all SDFS grantees conduct a needs assessment, establish measurable goals and objectives, implement research-based programming, and evaluate their activities. The study surveyed a nationally-representative sample of about 600 districts using computer-assisted telephone interviewing, with an overall response rate of 90 percent.

  Report available in PDF (174K) and MS Word (135K)

Archived information and reports