In this column, the author revisits who we are as assessment professionals, how we are trained, what our role is, and what our responsibilities are--to ourselves as a community, to our colleagues in education, at our institution, and to those we serve-- especially from an equity lens. They also share a few strategies to address the gaps they see.

For over 30 years, calls have been issued for the western evaluation field to address implicit bias in its theory and practice. Although many in the field encourage evaluators to be culturally competent, ontological competence remains unaddressed. Grounded in an institutionalized distrust of non-western perspectives of reality and knowledge…

A 2020 study from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Hussman School of Journalism and Media found that since 2004 over one-quarter of U.S. newspapers have disappeared. This reduction has left many people, especially those in poor rural areas, living in news deserts, where access to professionally vetted information is limited, if not…

The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) evaluates research studies that look at the effectiveness of education programs, products, practices, and policies, which the WWC calls "interventions." Many studies of education interventions make claims about impacts on students' outcomes. Some studies have designs that enable readers to make causal…

Evidence-based research relevant to social work practice has grown dramatically. This article describes a method that was implemented to teach master's and doctoral social work students how to synthesize and evaluate evidence-based interventions for social work-related problems and populations. The method includes eight steps: conceptualize the…

Beginning with a reference to living in a time of both uncertainty and opportunity, this article presents a discussion of key areas where shared understanding is needed if we are to successfully realize the design and use of high quality, valid assessments of science. The key areas discussed are: (1) assessment purpose and use, (2) the nature of…

Imagine a world where evaluation is a social epidemic . . . where individuals, groups, organizations, and communities are constantly learning about and from evaluations. The author believes that we are well on our way to creating a "global cascade" of evaluative thinking and practice. Evidence of this phenomenon can be seen in the field's…

As with many forms of evaluation, empowerment evaluation can be viewed as an ideology that promotes a particular set of social and professional values. Judging the quality and utility of empowerment evaluation thus requires a critical appraisal of the implications of adopting those values.

The Using Evaluation Data Form (UEDF) represents a psychological lever for getting a program's decision maker to consider major evaluation findings. The form may be used at any point of the evaluation process when sufficient data exist to support a finding deserving of action or reaction by the project staff. By local policy, it is required for…

Some of the most important evaluation questions cannot be answered through experimental research. The "assessment" of the St. Louis Leadership Program (SLLP), sponsored by the Danforth Foundations, is used as an illustration of a "connoisseur-based study" approach to evaluation. The project team, given limited time and funds, decided that it could…

What are the four different types of questions of concern in an evaluation study and how can concept questions be recognized and answered? These issues are addressed in this paper, in the framework of a compensatory education program evaluation. The discussion includes (1) the identification of concept questions and how they are different from…

This case study of one middle school focuses on improving teachers' skills in data-driven decision making through analysis of student work and their own professional practice. The expectation that schools will make adequate yearly progress has pushed evaluation practice down to the teacher level, where teachers are asked to analyze and…

The problem of productivity in evaluative research is addressed from three perspectives in health education. Two perspectives are scientific, while the third is practical and deals with the implementation of evaluative research. This third perspective is illustrated through an example of a health education program about sexually transmitted…

A new paradigm for evaluating school restructuring that is based on the teacher-as-researcher concept, or action research, is presented in this paper. The first section compares the traditional and new evaluation paradigms. The old model is competitive, one-dimensional, reactive, and based on external change agents; it appeals to fear and views…

It is now a matter of routine that schools in England are able to demonstrate the value of their work in terms of "impact" and "outcomes." In the province of imaginative education this is problematic. While Government has sought to create a new relationship between inspection and school self-evaluation, this in effect has…