Essays in this collection explore what a narrative perspective can mean for the practice of program evaluation. Narratives illuminate the value and meaning of a program or policy and can indicate the actions that need to be taken to improve it or to prevent failures in the future. The essays are: (1) "Introduction: Narrative Perspectives on…

Two articles present differing points of view on the evaluation of the development of a teacher education program. "Through the Looking Glass..." describes what happens when an evaluator becomes the evaluation client, and "Degrees of Strangeness" reports on the evaluator's findings and opinions. (SLD)

Three separate sessions were held in different geographic locations in October and November, 1977 as parts of the National Symposia for Professionals in Evaluation and Research (NSPER). The sessions focused on designing an introductory evaluation course for students and educators who are involved in assessment activities. Each session's workshops…

An editorial and two articles on quality control in evaluation are presented. Topics covered include definition and assessment of evaluation quality and development of standards for judging quality. Programs inspections activities of the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services are discussed. (TJH)

The Roundtable on Comprehensive Community Initiatives for Children and Families is a forum in which persons involved in the current generation of community-based cross-systems can engage in discussion about their work. Roundtable members, now numbering 30, meet biannually to share lessons they are learning and to work on common problems they face.…

Examples of innovative program evaluation techniques developed in several foreign and international settings are presented in a collection of 10 essays. Methods for understanding programs to be evaluated, focusing evaluation, gathering information, analyzing information, and communicating findings and recommendations are discussed. (TJH)

After outlining the 1984 activities and results of the Center for the Study of Evaluation's (CSE's) Evaluation Productivity Project, this monograph presents three reports. The first, "The Administrator's Role in Evaluation Use," by James Burry, Marvin C. Alkin, and Joan A. Ruskus, describes the factors influencing an evaluation's use…

The nature of educational evaluation and its interaction with policy in six state departments of education is examined. Case reports of research and evaluation units are presented for Virginia (by Gerald W. Bracey), Michigan (by David L. Donovan and Stanley A. Rumbaugh), Washington (by Alfred F. Rasp, Jr.), South Carolina (by Paul D. Sandifer),…

Eight articles discuss the teaching of evaluation methods through the process of performing evaluations. Four articles concentrate on evaluation as taught in higher education and professional education, and four articles deal with the four-state East Central Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome Education and Training Center Project. (SLD)