This document, Evaluating Driver Education Programs: Management Overview, provides an introduction to evaluating driver education programs. It is intended for driving school owners, driver educators, program managers, administrators, and others with limited background in research methods. The Management Overview provides a general introduction to the art and science of program evaluation, with a specific focus on how program evaluation concepts and methods can be applied to driver education evaluation. There are two companion documents: Evaluating Driver Education Programs: Comprehensive Guidelines, a more extensive and detailed evaluation manual; and Evaluating Driver Education Programs: How-To Guide, a practical, hands-on guide on how to do basic formative evaluations. The Comprehensive Guidelines provide a detailed background for planning, conducting, and integrating effective evaluation into beginner driver education program development and policy. Covering a range of evaluations from simple to complex, it is written primarily for program evaluators, researchers, and other technical audiences. The Comprehensive Guidelines include actual tools, such as questionnaires, focus group guides, and logbooks that can be used or adapted for evaluating beginner driver education programs. The How-To Guide provides hands-on, step-by-step guidance for actually conducting a basic formative evaluation. Developed especially for driving school operators and owners, program developers, and managers, it is intended to assist basic evaluation for improving a driver education program. Taken together, the three documents are intended to meet the needs of different people in the driver education field and to support better, more focused evaluations. The documents provide a set of tools that can be used to carefully and rigorously examine beginner driver education programs. It is hoped that their use will result in a growing body of evaluation data that can be built upon, leading to better driver education programs and, ultimately, safer young drivers. The three documents and related evaluation resources are also available on the website of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, http://www.aaafoundation.org. (Author/publisher)
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