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Social Construction of Reality - Bad Request

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The School District’s vision, mission, and goals have implications for program<br />

evaluation as well (Appendix M). The mission is educating each child for success. The<br />

vision, a clause punctuated with a colon, most notably states a great place to learn.<br />

Though not explicitly articulated as such, the three goals function as mechanisms to<br />

qualify how The School District intends to achieve the vision: (a) create a learning<br />

environment that will produce academic success for all students (b) provide a safe, secure<br />

learning environment (c) practice fiscal stewardship <strong>of</strong> resources. Strategies,<br />

measurements, and action steps undergird each goal. None <strong>of</strong> these stipulate program<br />

evaluation.<br />

The important finding was in the juxtaposition <strong>of</strong> the federal, state, and local<br />

perspectives (Appendix I). A summary list <strong>of</strong> the various responses elicited to a search<br />

for the program was generated (Appendix O) and presented to the primary intended user.<br />

The most significant finding was that The School District has not embraced a coherent<br />

and/or site-specific definition <strong>of</strong> the word program, particularly as this word relates to the<br />

imperative <strong>of</strong> program evaluation. However, despite a lack <strong>of</strong> coherence, the analysis<br />

drew forth the fact that the way School District board policy references programs<br />

strongly resonates with the manner in which the No Child Left Behind Act <strong>of</strong> 2001<br />

references policy. Another important concept that emerged is that at the LEA (local<br />

educational agency) level, in this case The School District, no concern is appropriated<br />

towards the methodological imperatives set forth for program evaluation as embodied in<br />

the federal legislation, particularly regarding edicts concerning randomized controlled<br />

trials. No evidence collected suggests The School District has the intent <strong>of</strong> pursuing such<br />

methods.<br />

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