This commentary reflects upon Lazar Stankov's thesis which regards "unforgiving nature of Confucian Asian societies" as the driving force underpinning academic success of students from these societies. The commentary considers theoretical perspectives put forward by Jian Wang and Emily Lin (2008), and by Chiu and Klassen (2010) as two alternative…

Reviewing has long been recognized as a critical part of the academic process of knowledge creation, development, and dissemination. However, as evidenced by recent findings from focus groups and an international survey, the relative lack of effective formal training in management PhD programs on how to review is surprising given the impact that…

Over the past 7 years, the Oral History Project Team has conducted interviews with individuals who have made signal contributions to evaluation theory and practice, tracing their professional development and contextualizing their work within the social and political climates of the time. By capturing the professional evolution of those who have…

This article seeks to promote what might be called a traditional form of ethnography. It recognises that all traditions change, but puts forward a view that, for an activity or product to be regarded as ethnographic, there is a need for some recognisable continuity with what has been regarded as ethnography in the last century. This article thus…

In his 1982 response to the myth that "creativity is too difficult to measure," Dr. Joe Khatena (a long-time contributor to the literature on creativity), characterized creativity as the "most exciting dimension of mental functioning." Building on a three-dimensional view of creativity (emphasizing the "individual," the "environment," and the…

This article presents an interview with Ralph Tyler. This interview will be of interest to those entering the field of education as well as for those who have made their home within the field for some time now. In the interview, Dr. Tyler discusses work in education and educational evaluation that spans over a half a century. He describes issues…

The purpose of this commentary is to respond to the article written by Voltz and Collins (2010) that considered the preparation of special education administrators for inclusion in diverse, standards-based contexts by highlighting the Administrator of Special Education Standards that were adopted in 2009 by the Council for Exceptional Children.…

The author is increasingly sensitive to the Venn diagram of overlapping expertise in which program evaluation intersects a content area such as public health, urban education, or--in the case of Katherine Hay--international development. Many evaluators practice in these areas of overlap, experts in the evaluation of a specific domain. Given her…

Describing, explaining, and discussing various modern indices of scholarly impact as accomplished by Ruscio, Seaman, D'Oriano, Stremlo, and Mahalchik (this issue) is highly commendable, as such measures get increasingly important in hiring and promotion decisions. The author agrees with almost all points made in the target article, except the…

Much grading of student work is based, overtly or tacitly, on assumptions derived from scientific measurement. However, the practice of grading and the cumulation of grades into an overall index of achievement are socially constructed activities that fall a long way short of what is expected of scientific measurement. If scientific measurement is…

Purposeful assessment of space for the understanding and improvement of the academic library is a relatively new area of inquiry. This essay offers a framework to consider different factors affecting such an assessment and insights for undertaking a meaningful inquiry about the relationship of space to an academic library's evolving purpose as…

We argue that once we take into account the students' rational enrollment decisions, mismatch in the sense that the intended beneficiary of affirmative action admission policies are made worse off could occur only if selective universities possess private information about students' post-enrollment treatment effects. This necessary condition for…

Among a number of lessons, this commentary suggests that oftentimes the grade a student receives in a class is not truly reflective of what that student learned. Certainly, assigning grades--at least for those who take their role as educators seriously--is one of the toughest tasks confronting the classroom teacher. Again and again, one reflects…

The authors respond to the commentaries on a series of articles (in the March 2009 issue of "Educational Researcher") that discuss the challenges associated with measuring reading instruction. The authors argue that the teaching of reading is a complex, multifaceted phenomenon best studied through a variety of overlapping and complementary…

In his writings on school choice and educational justice, Harry Brighouse presents normative evaluations of various choice systems. This paper responds to Brighouse's claim that it is inadequate to criticise these evaluations with reference to empirical data concerning the effects of school choice.