CHALLENGES IN EVALUATING SCHOOL-LINKED SERVICES - TOWARD A MORE COMPREHENSIVE EVALUATION FRAMEWORK

School-linked services have emerged as one response to the steady decl ine in children's educational prospects caused by a host of nonschool factors. Given the political, fiscal, and administrative pressures und er which these efforts operate, evaluation stands to play a critical r ole in the development of school-linked services policy and program de sign. This article identifies the challenges inherent in evaluating th ese efforts and then analyzes data from 18 school-linked services init iatives to determine whether and how evaluations address these challen ges. Using the results of these analyses, the authors present a compre hensive evaluation framework designed to overcome the challenges of ev aluating school-linked services and provide a more complete understand ing of these initiatives.