o An important outcome of Federal evaluation studies has been the publication and distribution of "how-to" handbooks on topics in the area of education evaluation. Three handbooks are currently available, and several more are being written. The Government Printing Office has sold more than 12,000 copies of the first one published, A Practical Guide to Measuring Project Impact. In addition, USOE distributed nearly a thousand copies, More than 10,000 copies of the second handbook, A Procedural Guide for Validating Achievement Gains, have been sold since it The third monograph, dealing with became available. estimation of education costs, has recently become available from the Government Printing Office and from USOE. Handbooks are currently being written on such topics as students' affective development, assessing bias in achievement tests, and management of a large-scale testing program. USOE is soliciting ideas for more topics to be included in the series. A product of the Planned Variations Study was a report on "Student Performance Measures for Evaluative Secondary and Postsecondary Intervention Programs." A copy of this report was distributed to every field project of the Special Services for Disadvantaged Students Program and the Upward Bound Program. Many letters about the usefulness of this report and letters requesting additional copies were received from the field projects. Acquiring Basic Skills Three major programs administered by OE place heavy emphasis upon providing supplementary services to facilitate the acquisition of basic academic skills by the educationally disadvantaged. They are Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the Basic and Pilot programs of the Emergency School Aid Act (ESAA), and Title IV of the Indian Education Act. Under Title I, 76 percent of the funds apportioned for the Basic LEA Grants program are used to support basic skills instruction. Similar percentages for the Nelected or Delinquent and Migrant programs of Title I are 70 and 54 percent, respectively. Of the ESAA Basic and Pilot program funds, about 70 percent were used to support basic skills instruction in the elementary grades. Under the Indian Education Act, from one-fifth to one-third of the projects are funded involved objectives pertaining to basic skills. Recent evidence is available on the ways in which project participants benefit from these efforts and on the nature of unusually effective projects, for the Basic LEA Grants program under Title I and for the Basic and Pilot programs under ESAA. Elementary students who receive compensatory assistance in reading supported by Title I were able to maintain or improve their achievement status relative to their more advantaged peers during the school year rather than fall further behind, which is the usual fate for many unassisted disadvantaged children. However, the extent to which these gains are maintained over the summer and in subsequent years is unknown but is the subject of a current evaluation study. Students in ESAA Basic elementary schools showed greater achievement gains than would be expected without the assistance of the program. Unusually A number of attributes relating to planning, management, and the teaching staff were found to differentiate between unusually effective and ineffective projects in both the Title I and ESAA studies. effective projects can be characterized as having a staff that shares a basic skills goal and emphasis, has strong administrative guidance and direction, expends more time or resources on basic skills instruction, and uses age-appropriate student rewards in relation to their academic progress. The Indian Education Act, Title IV of P.L. 92-318, was passed in 1972 in order to establish a separate title for Indian elementary, secondary, and adult education. Title IV authorized funds for meetig the special educational needs of Indian children and adults. Title IV programs have made some recent progress in addressing the basic educational skills of Indians. Data show that in FY '75 (the latest year for which data are available), 29 percent of Part A funded projects were designed to improve the basic educational skills of Indian children. Similarly, 20 percent of the funded Part B project which support planning, dissemination, and pre- and in-service training contained objectives addressing the basic educational skills of Indian children. Although Part C programs are designed to improve the educational opportunities for adult Indians, 34 percent of these funded projects contained objectives addressing the basic educational skills of Indian adults. Eliminating the Effects of Discrimination School districts that desegregate their schools are eligible for Federal assistance under the Emergency School Aid Act (ESAA). The purpose of ESAA is to provide financial assistance related to the implementation of a public school desegregation plan and to assist schools which remain racially isolated after a desegregation plan has been implemented. Three recent studies have criticized the targeting of ESAA funds, pointing out that many school districts funded had desegregation efforts which were completed years ago. In Fiscal Year 1977, 70 percent of ESAA Basic Grants--the largest component program of ESAA--were to districts that implemented a desegregation plan prior to 1973. Activities have been supported which are not directly related to the implementation of a desegregation plan despite the efforts of the Office of Education, in part because local proposal writers are able to present programs for compensatory education in the guise of desegregation-related needs. There has been little new desegregation since ESAA was enacted in 1972. ESAA funds do not generally provide an incentive for districts to initiate desegregation, but largely provide compensatory education services similar to those provided by Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. One technique for desegregating schools-magnet schools--is supported as a separate ESAA sub-program. Magnet schools are designed to offer a special curriculum which is capable of attracting substantial numbers of students of different racial backgrounds. An OE-sponsored study is assessing the effectiveness of magnet schools in achieving desegregation. |