Evaluation of the on-the-job performance of school district superintendents as they implement school board policy is explored, drawing on the results of a federally supported project on improvement of administrator performance evaluation that is part of the work of the Center for Research on Educational Accountability and Teacher Evaluation. (SLD)

This introduction provides an overview of the eight other articles in the special issue and summarizes the objectivist concept of educational evaluation that the author recognizes as growing from the work of the Center for Research on Educational Accountability and Teacher Evaluation (CREATE). (SLD)

Point of entry problems are faced by evaluators when asked to start an evaluation at an inappropriate time or to perform an inappropriate study. The fundamental purpose of evaluation is to help improve services. Guidelines are presented for choosing when to do a context, input, process, or product evaluation. (GDC)