Special Education Programs

A Guide to Evaluation

This guide shows how school personnel can use evaluation to assess programme appropriateness, effectiveness, quality and improvement of special education programmes.

The authors suggest practical ways in which evaluation can benefit teacher and student. They illustrate: how to document needs and support requests for resources; how to reveal programme strengths and weaknesses and make informed, effective decisions on the need for change; how to compare promising programme alternatives by pre-testing and collecting data on a sample basis and determining effectiveness before widespread implementation; and how to diagnose aspects of programmes that must be improved to meet legal or external requirements. Non-technical terminology is used throughout.