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DIMENSIONS OF EFFECTIVENESS IN A DIAGNOSTIC PROGRAM FOR HANDICAPPED CHILDREN (EVALUATION)
Abstract
During recent years there have been increasing calls for evaluation of human service programs. This has been due to a number of societal factors including the limitation of both public and private resources for human services. Program evaluation, as a subspecialty of applied social science, has evolved as the major scientific response. Yet program evaluation, as a discipline, has suffered from disagreements about theoretical assumptions and the resolution of methodological problems. In the field of childhood communication disorders, there have been a limited number of evaluation studies and still fewer attempts to develop evaluation methodology. The purpose of this study was to generate dimensions of effectiveness for programs that serve handicapped children. This was accomplished by means of an application of the strategic constituent approach to program evaluation in a diagnostic clinic for children with communication disorders. The participants in this study were constituents of this clinic. They included administrators, clinical coordinators, clinical staff members, parents of children who had received services, and representatives of school districts who had requested services from the clinic. Samples of all four categories of constituents were interviewed, and this was followed by an objective study of administrators, coordinators and staff members using a rating scale developed from interview data. The purpose of these data collection efforts was to generate criteria of an effective diagnostic clinic and group these criteria into dimensions of effectiveness that would generalize to other programs serving children with various handicaps. Five dimensions of effectiveness were created in order to categorize the criteria suggested for this diagnostic clinic: (1) Quality of Services, (2) Quality of Staff, (3) Consumer Satisfaction, (4) Employment Satisfaction, and (5) Support. Qualitative results suggested possible strengths and weaknesses in the clinic surveyed that merit further investigation, and quantitative analyses provided evidence for the reliability and validity of the Effectiveness Rating Scale developed in the study, as well as the applicability of the strategic constituent approach to the evaluation of programs for handicapped children. These conclusions must be validated by additional research in other programs.
Subject Area
Educational psychology
Recommended Citation
THOMPSON, RONALD WILLIAM, "DIMENSIONS OF EFFECTIVENESS IN A DIAGNOSTIC PROGRAM FOR HANDICAPPED CHILDREN (EVALUATION)" (1984). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8423836.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8423836