The article serves as a guide for researchers in developing evidence of validity using bivariate correlations, specifically construct validity. The authors outline the steps for calculating and interpreting bivariate correlations. Additionally, they provide an illustrative example and discuss the implications.

This paper is meant to highlight the occurrence of Simpson's Paradox when using aggregated data obtained from two IEA studies in Israel, while ignoring the effect of a powerful intervening variable in the local context--the ethnicity factor. It will demonstrate faulty conclusions regarding either the absence of relationships between a contextual…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 allows schools to use a child's response to research-based intervention (RTI) as a part of procedures to identify students with learning disabilities. This paper considers whether RTI-based assessment models meet ethical and legal standards for acceptable assessment practices.…

Notes that, very early in program planning, budgets are estimated for major program components, including evaluation. Proposes heuristic for establishing reasonable evaluation estimates in initial planning. Describes logical sources of information from which to construct such a heuristic. Recommends that, for typical programs and projects, initial…

Despite the best of intentions, qualitative researchers can be faced, in some circumstances, with having to make meaning from thin, or less than optimal, data. Using a real study as context, the authors describe the ways that they made sense of their thin data on teachers' perceptions of a large-scale evaluation instrument. They propose a…

Problems with assessment of the quality of life of individuals with intellectual disabilities are cited. The Comprehensive Quality of Life Scale-Intellectual Disability is described as a scale that measures both objective and subjective data, uses simple language, tests for competence in using Likert scales, and covers the full range of quality of…

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the reasons for resistance to evaluation and the factors that affect adoption of new procedures, while focusing on a model for guiding the planning of evaluation implementation strategies. The process of adoption of an innovation occurs in three stages: orientation, where the user identifies benefits;…

Although college faculty may hesitate to evaluate each others' teaching, it is a sensible alternative to evaluation by students or by administrators. Peer evaluations are not only useful for improving teaching, but also affect promotion and tenure decisions. When faculty are rated by observation, repeated visits and rater training are required in…

Described is a rationale and process that can be used for the evaluation of environmental education programs. Expectations, planning, results, and using results are all discussed as steps in the evaluation process. (CW)

Since the measurement of school achievement involves the administration of achievement tests to various grades on various subjects, both grade level and subject matter contribute to within-school achievement variations. To determine whether achievement test scores vary most among different fields within a grade level, or within fields among…

Outlines influences on evaluation: demand for more highly skilled graduates, reduced availability of public funds, mixed educational concerns, gap between evaluation knowledge and practice, simplicity/complexity dilemma. Proposes categorization of types/levels of evaluation: basic research, program evaluation, student learning assessments, process…

This commentary on the mismeasurement of language and reading comprehension abilities argues that quantitative measures of complex behaviors and subsequent ranking of individual performance often do not accurately reflect the abstract constructs they purport to measure, and inappropriate quantification and ranking create and perpetuate potentially…

This paper addresses some of the concerns inherent in evaluating feminists' projects and focuses on three topics: (1) a discussion of some objections raised by feminists about traditional forms of assessment; (2) a description of the strengths and weaknesses of illuminative evaluation as an alternative approach to evaluate feminist programs; and…

A year-long case study of the effects of an educational and vocational rehabilitation program in a youth training center was discussed in terms of fourteen issues which might threaten the validity of an evaluation or research project. This correctional institution housed women aged 14 to 21 who were long-term wards of the state, held on remand, or…

Issues concerning students' evaluation of college faculty are discussed. Several views of this process are presented. Having identified relevant variables or paradigms, possible relationships between the variables can be studied (models and theories). The assumptions underlying these paradigms include the following: that students have a right and…