A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

This is the 23rd report to the Congress on federally funded education programs and the fourteenth such report submitted by the Department of Education. The Biennial Evaluation Report responds to the Congressional mandate in Section 425(a) and (b) of the General Education Provision Act. The report is due March 31 of odd-numbered years.

For the fiscal years 1995-1996 report, there is information on 151 programs administered by the Department during those years. The report gives available information on the goals and objectives, funding, services supported, strategic initiatives, indicators of impact and effectiveness, and sources of information for those programs. It briefly describes planned studies and provides contact names for further information.

A priority of this report is to help respond to reporting requirements of the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) of 1993. Much of the information comes from the Department's efforts in developing a Strategic Plan and in developing performance indicators for its programs. The report displays the program performance indicators that were proposed to the Congress as of April 1997, with appropriate cross-references to tables of proposed indicators in program chapters. Since this report was drafted, these indicators have been further refined, and indicators have been developed and proposed to Congress for many other programs. The new indicators will be included in the next Biennial Evaluation Report covering fiscal years 1997 and 1998.

As in past editions, the report summarizes evaluation findings on what helps program participants to increase their achievement or improve their performance. We hope that evaluation findings and strategic initiatives to improve program services and program management will contribute to making Federal programs work even better.

I welcome your suggestions on making the Biennial Evaluation Report more useful in your work.

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[Acknowledgments]