Occasionally novice evaluators of educational products do not recognize the full scope of their jobs and may feel that there isn't much to do because a product prototype won't be ready for some time. This brief dialogue attempts to illustrate that there are many things an evaluator can do before he or she sees a product--perhaps even too much.…

Evaluation as a discipline requires knowledge based on: empirical evidence; public verification; and usefulness in various settings and contexts. Activities which aid in accumulating this knowledge include: compliance with federal requirements; critiques and secondary data analyses; impact and use studies; comparative field studies; and…

The Research on Evaluation Program's National Advisory Panel recommended that a means of matching evaluation methods with evaluation purposes be developed and that it include a guide to major Program publications. Practitioners in the field have also requested support on how to approach the evaluation design process to permit the incorporation of…

Heads of evaluation units in 21 state education agencies responded to a structured telephone interview about their unit's workload, evaluation methods, and associated problems and needs. Time committed to evaluation ranged from 10% to 100% and did not relate to staff size which ranged from 1-72. Eleven states contracted some of their evaluations.…