SAGE Journal Articles
Abstract
With the exponential increase in Web access, program evaluators need to understand the methodological benefits and barriers of using the Web to collect survey data from program participants. In this experimental study, the authors examined whether a Web survey can be as effective as the more established mail survey on three measures of survey effectiveness: response rate, question completion rate, and the lack of evaluative bias. Community- and university-based educators (n =274) attending a 2-day program were randomly assigned to receive a Web or mail survey evaluating the program. Among those participants successfully solicited by e-mail, Web survey participants were more likely to respond (95%) than mail survey participants (79%). Web survey participants completed similarly high numbers of quantitative questions as mail survey participants, provided longer and more substantive responses to qualitative questions, and did not demonstrate evidence of evaluative bias. These results suggest that program evaluators could expand their use of Web surveys among computer users.
Abstract
Objective: This article reports on the evaluation of The School Attendance Demonstration Project (SADP). SADP is an intervention aimed at improving the school attendance rates of 16-to-18 year-olds receiving public assistance. Method: Experimental group students attending school less than 80% of the time received a notice to attend an orientation for services. Students who continued to attend school less than 80%, did not attend the orientation, and could not show good cause for attendance were sanctioned. The study used a control group with random assignment. Results: Data show that in any month, more experimental group students met the attendance rule than did control group students. Logistic regression predicted that females, Hispanics, students from single-parent families, and those attending alternative schools had difficulty meeting attendance requirements. Conclusions: The findings suggest that at-risk teens need alternative strategies from sanctions to encourage school attendance.
Abstract
The efficacy of using computer-assisted instruction (CAI) with inmates participating in a prison education program was examined through an experimental study. The researchers sought to address and correct many of the methodological flaws commonly present among studies that compare a CAI-plus-traditional-instruction combination to traditional-instruction alone. Seventy-one inmates were randomly assigned to either an experimental group that received a CAI-plus-traditional-instruction combination, or a control group that received traditional instruction only. Achievement scores of inmates in the experimental group were not significantly higher than those in the control group.
Abstract
Evaluations of handwritten essays or exams are often suspected of being biased, such as by mood states or individual predilections. Although most of these influences are unsystematic, at least one bias is problematic because it systematically affects evaluations of handwritten materials. Three experiments revealed that essays in legible as compared to less legible handwriting were evaluated more positively. This robust finding was related to a basic judgmental mechanism that builds on the fluency with which handwriting can be processed. The present research further revealed that this evaluative bias is not inevitable but can be controlled for. Given the importance of evaluations based on handwritten work samples for individual success throughout school, college, university, and work life, it is important for individuals to be aware of this bias.