Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file viewed on (February 27, 2007) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Farmers' markets in the United States have experienced a dramatic increase since the 1970's. In the past three decades the number of farmers' markets has increased from 340 in 1970 to 3,617 by 2006. This interest in farmers' markets has not been felt everywhere, though. The purpose of this study was to investigate the supply and demand sides of farmers' markets, farmers and customers, in order to increase both segments at farmers' markets in Bryan and College Station, Texas. Interviews were conducted with farmers within a 100-mile radius of the two towns, to determine characteristics of potential farmers' market vendors and factors influencing market outlet choice. Bryan and College Station residents were surveyed at different market outlets to establish their knowledge of and interest in farmers' markets. The two primary themes found for farmers' reasons for growing were family and enjoyment, with enjoyment an especially important theme among older growers. Factors influencing market outlet choice were farmer status (part-time or full-time) and volume grown, with time, volume and risk being the primary considerations for most of the younger farmers interviewed. Almost 90% of respondents said they had been to one of the local farmers' markets, but this could be attributed to many of the respondents' misperception of a farmers' market. Farmers' markets will need to increase residents' understandings of what a farmers' market is. The best communication channel to reach residents appears to be the newspaper as 35% of respondents said that is where they get their local news. The primary reason for not attending farmers' markets was inconvenient times. Those that chose inconvenient times as a reason for not attending preferred Saturday afternoons.

The purposes of this research were to explore the application situation and the implementation difficulty of the consumers' perspective on the evaluation of elementary school in Kaohsiung, and to know the different background personnel¡¦s comments about the consumers' perspective on the evaluation of elementary school. Finally , according to the findings, this research proposed the concrete suggestions, providing references to the educational administration institute and the elementary schools. In order to achieve the research goals, the literature review was conducted to understand the contents, meanings and current practice of elementary school evaluation. Next, a questionnaire was designed by the researcher to collect and analyze local elementary school educators¡¦ views about the whole as well as each domain of school evaluation. A sample of 800 educators of elementary schools in Kaohsiung were randomly chosen to fill in the questionnaires. 557 questionnaires were effective. Statistical methods including percentage, mean, t-test, one-way ANOVA and Scheffè were adopted. Last, semi-structured interviews were given to six academic supervisors of elementary school educators. Based on analysis of the data obtained, conclusions of the study were as follows: 1. The whole application situation of the consumers' perspective on the evaluation of elementary School in Kaohsiung was good, especially in the stage on need-appraisal, but the stage of meta-evaluation was low. 2. Members of the evaluation committee were not able to understand the situation thoroughly of the school affairs and the present developing situation. 3. School personnels were worried about the result report of the evaluation, that might cause the effect of ¡§labelling¡¨. 4.The result utilization and the accuracy and feasibility of the present school evaluation were met low-degree application of the connotation on the consumers' perspective on the evaluation. 5.The agreement degree level of the administrative teachers was higher than non-administrative teachers on the stages of school- management, need-appraisal,process-evaluation,and feedback-mechanism. 6. The personnels of the small-scale schools expressed the anxiety that they had insufficient professional ability on self-evaluation. 7. The opinions of administrative teachers emphasized that school evaluation always focused on document examination, unable to achieve effectively the evaluation goals. 8.During the evaluation, the interview was unable to reflect the opinions of the all.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-87). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-87). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-108). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-111). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2003. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-111). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis--Auburn University, 2009. / Abstract. Includes bibliographic references (p.145-150).