As part of a project designed to identify appropriate and feasible methods of evaluating vocational education, this essay provides a perspective for evaluating vocational education in terms of outcomes. The first of four sections provides a rationale for studying educational outcomes. Section 2 focuses on the nature and meaning of outcomes and the…

This bulletin deals with current assessment procedures for the Certificate of Pre-Vocational Education (CPVE) and discusses changes in CPVE assessment that are currently being considered by Great Britain's Further Education Unit. The first section discusses the reassessments of the CPVE profile's core competence statements and the CPVE preparatory…

Program advisory committees in vocational education have traditionally been charged with the responsibility of evaluating programs for the purpose of keeping them up to date with business and industry practices and current technology. Rapid technological development and accountability requirements have led to state mandates that the advisory…

The educational authorities of the Member States of the European Economic Community have begun to study the evaluation of vocational training programs. The study first will probe two strategic questions: (1) evaluation--to what end and by whom should evaluation be made?; and (2) what should be evaluated? The first program slated to be evaluated is…

Concerns that students who have learning difficulties and disabilities (LDDs) and who are enrolled in further education (FE) colleges were being excluded from the basic entitlement to accreditation prompted a review of the system of 16-19 qualifications in 1995. It was recommended that England's national qualifications framework be revised and…

Sixteen vocational education evaluation problems which indicate the present situation in the states are discussed, and alternative solutions to them are suggested in this report. Each problem represents a situation that should be remedied or a need that must be met and was found to be common to a number of states attempting to develop or improve…

One of a series of sixteen knowledge transformation papers, this paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of longitudinal studies as a method for evaluating vocational programs. First, longitudinal methods are defined for the differences between them and cross-sectional studies are established. The results of a literature search conducted…

Intended to assist practitioners in vocational education in improving program planning and evaluation, this paper provides an overview of needs assessment, which is a method of acquiring evaluative data required by the Vocational Education Amendments of 1978 (P.L. 94-482). The first two sections discuss various definitions of educational needs…

This brief describes new requirements for vocational education program improvement and evaluation mandated by the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act of 1990. Recommendations to enhance the impact of program improvement and evaluation activities are included. The first two sections discuss developing new state…

This paper summarizes the proceedings of a conference held to discuss evaluation in vocational education. The agenda included welcome speeches and the introductory address by Robert Savy, President of the Regional Council of Limousin (France); an opening session with statements from representatives of the Commission of the European Communities…

One of a series of sixteen knowledge transformation papers, this paper represents a comprehensive study of the nature and types of impact evaluation available to vocational administrators, researchers, and evaluation experts. After explaining the concepts of the CIPP (context, input, process, product) model, of summative evaluation and the value…

One of a series of sixteen knowledge transformation papers, this paper reviews data sources for objective evaluation of vocational education, including the need for such information and the problems associated with its use. First, a list is given of thirty-five data elements necessary to evaluate a skill training problem at the secondary,…

As part of a project designed to identify appropriate and feasible methods of evaluating vocational education with respect to its outcomes, this bibliography contains descriptive and evaluative annotations of a selection of empirical studies of vocational education outcomes. Following a technical introduction discussing the methodological issues…

Traditionally, outcomes measured by postsecondary vocational education assessment have included labor force participation rates, type of employment, earnings, and employer satisfaction with employees. Today, however, legislators and policymakers are moving more and more toward accountability measures tied to students' educational outcomes, such as…

In Great Britain, interest in the measurement of value added was stimulated initially by the requirement that schools and further education (FE) colleges publish league tables of examination results. Value-added data can be aggregated to compare different institutions' performance. Within colleges, value-added data provide a basis for setting…