There is sufficient evidence from impact studies throughout the field to conclude that continuing education can have an impact on evaluation. The challenge is to increase the proportion of programs that do so and to develop more efficient procedures to assess impact. (CT)

Most standardized achievement tests do not provide much information that can be used in improving an educational program. Teachers and other program developers need to know what kinds of program objectives are being learned and by what kinds of students and what kinds are not being learned and by whom. Information of this sort furnishes a basis…

Four kinds of measures of excellence are currently used in evaluating vocational education: components and process, occupational impact, equity, and individual student development. None of them displays the kind of precision that characterizes measures in the physical sciences. Furthermore, the nature of the enterprise to which these measures must…

Describes an administrative operational system for internship programs leading to a justifiable return on investment in the areas of academic integrity, departmental image, and resource acquisition. (KEH)

Concerning the nature, longevity, and quality of vocational agriculture programs during the next 10 years, teachers should consider these four questions: (1) Whom will we serve?, (2) how will we serve?, (3) how well will we serve?, and (4) how will we be led? (LRA)

Compares and contrasts major themes and characteristics of multicultural, developing, and environmental education programs, offering perspectives on whether linkage should occur among these three fields of study. Also discusses implications of this union for teaching, training, and instructional programs. (ML)

The major issue of educational quality is linked to the potential of national and state assessment programs. It is suggested that changes in assessment design, analysis, and reporting can significantly contribute to improvement in the policy development process. The California Assessment Program illustrates how state assessment information may be…

The author presents testimony on the value of process indicators--i.e., measures of the services the education system is actually providing--for improving educational governance. He states that the case in favor of process indicators can be summarized in terms of three propositions. First, information about system performance is critical for…

For many years, England has been the epitome of high-stakes accountability, often playing leapfrog with the USA. It represents an extreme of centralized surveillance, with schools organized as a quasi-market and supervised through a punitive combination of external inspection, the use of test data to name and shame schools, and ultimately closure…

Reports of declining test scores and high school graduates who can't read or compute have triggered a public demand for higher standards in education. In light of this demand, National Assessment re-examined its role with respect to raising educational quality in this country. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) asked seven…

Evaluation of freshman English programs is a process involving recursive steps, such as planning which elements to review, securing resources to carry out the review, actually reviewing the planned elements, and providing written reports to decision-makers. The four elements of an educational program--contexts, input, process, and product--cohere…

If lack of excellence in the public schools is a problem, it does not follow naturally that teachers and their preparation are the only elements in society at fault. However, it may be that teachers and teacher preparation have not kept pace with societal changes and expectations. To most students it appears that the purpose of education is to…

Involving producing, analyzing, and using information, evaluation is the central discipline of the information age. Both traditional criteria for good evaluation and standards formulated in 1981 prescribe evaluations that are useful, practical, ethical, and accurate. The burning question in evaluation is the utilization of information for…

Four of the policy statements for vocational education developed by the Wisconsin Board of Vocational, Technical, and Adult Education reflect concerns shared in the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Vocational and Adult Education. First, vocational education is accountable to the publics, namely students, employers, and state, local, and…

In the context of findings from the recent nationwide studies and reports on the status of education, this paper focuses on the program assessment, instructional planning, and resource allocation efforts of the Rochester (New York) School District. The first phase, the Rochester Assessment Project, began with informal meetings between the…