George Grob presented the fifth and final Eleanor Chelimsky Forum address at the 2017 annual meeting of the Eastern Evaluation Research Society. In this commentary, I respond to several points that George raises in the "American Journal of Evaluation" paper based on that address. An overarching theme of my comments involves the potential…

This report asserts that tax credit scholarship programs, that distribute scholarships to students via Scholarship Tuition Organizations (STOs), have saved state treasuries between $1.7 and $3.4 billion dollars since 1998. The report argues that these programs are able to realize fiscal savings as a result of students leaving public schools and…

Ruscio, Seaman, D'Oriano, Stremlo, and Mahalchik (this issue) evaluate 22 bibliometric indicators, including conventional measures, like the number of publications, the "h" index, and many "h" index variants. To assess the quality of the indicators, their well-justified criteria encompass conceptual, empirical, and practical…

The International Reading Association's Position Statement on Young Adolescents' Literacy Learning states, "It is during the middle years of schooling that most students refine their reading preferences, become sophisticated readers of informational text, and lay the groundwork for the lifelong reading habit." As the National Assessment of…

Identifies standards that may be used in evaluating research reviews. (HOD)

Discusses two articles addressing the problem of how to read and evaluate library research in a critical, consumer-oriented manner: Margaret Hayes Grazier's "Critically Reading and Applying Research in School Library Media Centers" (1982) and M. Carl Drott's "How to Read Research: An Approach to the Literature for Practitioners" (1984). (EJS)

This presentation outlines a perspective on job analysis and comments on research reported at a symposium with reference to that perspective. The perspective discusses two questions pertaining to job analysis that are referred to as the Stage I and Stage II evaluation operations: What should be done? and How well was it done? Stage I evaluation is…

The observations gleaned from the experiences of two editors of speech communication journals served as the basis for the identification of the limitations inherent in research studies employing qualitative methods. Among their observations are the following: (1) qualitative research remains a relatively ill defined descriptor which embodies a…

Relativism is an inevitable consequence of our interpretive mode of being in the world. This is so for both our daily lives and our professional lives. What does not overly concern us at the former level should likewise not concern us at the latter level. (Author/BJV)

Notes an antiscientific bias in writings that proclaim the value of qualitative approaches for studying information problems. Discusses the following methodological concerns: (1) scientific versus nonscientific traditions; (2) distinction between emic and etic perspectives; (3) artificial divide between qualitative and quantitative techniques; (4)…

Reviews recent resources for assessing school library media programs and discusses the importance of program assessment. Circulation statistics and personal approaches to assessment are described, and the findings of three research reports on the effectiveness of school library media programs are discussed. (KRN)

Triangulation strategy results in evidence characterized by the following: (1) convergence; (2) inconsistency; and (3) contradiction. In order to render the data sensible, the researcher or evaluator must report data collection procedures, as well as the three levels of information from which explanations of social phenomena are constructed. (BJV)

Evaluation studies are discussed in terms of aesthetic and literary qualities. Concepts such as imagery, coherence, credibility, dramatic structure, mode of presentation, and story line, are analyzed in relation to evaluative documents. (MH)

The consistent application of sound criteria will increase the reliability of manuscript reviews, but many other factors contribute to low quality research articles. The central question must be whether or not the study was worth doing. Familiarity with the research domain is a necessity for appropriate research evaluation. (SLD)

A consideration of ethics is necessary in the development of guidelines for conducting and reporting research. A brief description of the history of ethical guidelines in research is presented followed by suggestions for development of ethical guidelines, both those that can be legislated and those that cannot. (SI)