The paper addresses issues in special education program evaluation. Introductory information examines the mandate for state monitoring under P.L. 94-142, The Education For All Handicapped Children Act, and reviews state monitoring approaches undertaken in Nebraska, Missouri, and North Carolina. A nine-step procedure designed to help policymakers become more effective consumers of evaluation reports is provided. Checkpoints for policymakers are listed under each of the following steps: reading the complete evaluation report, reviewing the evaluation model, reviewing the evaluation's goals and objectives, reviewing the evaluation criteria, reviewing the population and sample selection, reviewing the evaluation design, reviewing the data collection and analysis process, reviewing the overall evaluation report, and designing a program improvement management plan. Also included is a glossary of approximately 40 evaluation research terms. (CL)