Special Education Programs

A Guide to Evaluation

If the only reason you evaluate your special education programs is to satisfy external, legally mandated requirements, you're not reaping the full benefit of your efforts. This book shows how evaluation information helps you: *Document needs and support requests for resources (and improve your chances for getting them!) *Reveal program strengths and weaknesses and make informed, effective decisions on changes needed (or not needed) *Compare promising program alternatives by pretesting and collecting data on a limited basis and determining effectiveness before widespread implementation *Diagnose aspects of programs that must be improved to pass a mandated external review This book is part of a seven-volume series for evaluating programs and services in today's K-12 schools. The "master plan" for this series is found in Evaluating School Programs: An Educator's Guide by James R. Sanders. It describes the steps involved in conducting the evaluation, including ways to focus the evaluation, identify specific evaluation questions, and collect, organize, analyze, and report the information. All volumes in the series, including this one, are designed to be mutually complementary and used in conjunction with Evaluating School Programs.