The Current Status of Assessing Experiential Education Programs. Information Series No. 163.

Overview & Synopsis

This report is a composite of the evaluation methods and findings derived from national evaluations of experiential education programs. Section I, an overview of assessing experiential education, has two chapters: an introduction which discusses the origins and current trends of experiential education and identifies the purpose of the study; and an outline of goals, outcomes, and key features of experiential education programs. Section II takes a closer look at five experiential education programs: Experience-Based Career Education, the Career Intern Program, Executive High School Internships Program, cooperative education programs, and Neighborhood Youth Corps. Each vignette answers the following questions about the particular program: How was the program developed? Who are the participating students? What are its goals? What are its key elements? How was the evaluation done and where is it reported? What are the evaluation findings and what are the evaluation problems? Section III, which presents conclusions about assessing experiential education, discusses the synthesis of evaluation findings, problems in evaluating experiential education programs, and alternatives to current practices. A selected bibliography is appended. (LMS)