FULL TITLE: Evaluating a Regional Environmental Learning System. Volume V of A Sourcebook for the Design of a Regional Environmental Learning System. [Project title: Development of an Interpretive Structural Model and Strategies for Implementation Based on a Descriptive and Prescriptive Analysis of Resources for Environmental Education/Studies. Contract #300-700-4028]. This is Volume 5 of a 6-volume set of reference reports written for the U. S. Office of Environmental Education (OEE) under a contract supervised by Walter J. Bogan. This report was produced by a research team in the University of Illinois Center for Instructional Research & Curriculum Evaluation, in the College of Education. A background in evaluation skills and approaches is given, to help identify needs for evaluation, show how to design evaluation studies, and assess the data needed for evaluations, particularly the evaluations of environmental educational programs. The volume is available on microfiche from ERIC. ERIC Abstract: This volume deals with the evaluation of a Regional Environmental Learning System (RELS). Five contexts of local evaluation are discussed: (1) Evaluation by a board of directors, (2) evaluation of impact of inservice, (3) evaluation of bias, (4) evaluation of student achievement, and (5) ethnographic evaluation of a community-based program. Case studies of programs resembling the RELS model are presented and the organization of an evaluation study is described. (RE) ERIC ACCESSION NO: ED187571; CLEARINGHOUSE NO.:SE030973 AVAILABILITY: EDRS Price - MF01/PC07 Plus Postage. World Catalog ACCESSION NO: 7664288.

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