Examples from the evaluation of a program in which data collection systems were developed jointly by the program's staff and evaluators are described. The Louisiana SPUR (Special Plan Upgrading Reading) Project was evaluated by the Louisiana Department of Education Bureau of Evaluation. SPUR involves 63 of the state's 66 public school systems and…

This paper examines the effect of a formal evaluation process upon educational change--specifically, the adoption of innovative reading programs and practices--at different organizational levels of implementation. Because of the size of the project (62 school systems, 142 designated schools, three sets of categorical funded projects), the…

Two program evaluations are described to demonstrate two very different methodologies and consumer orientations. The first, a patient satisfaction survey commissioned by a medical center, used surveys as part of a larger continuous multipurpose evaluation process, and the second, the ZooGardens evaluation, was a one-time multimethod evaluation of…

Local school district teacher evaluation plans, processes, and procedures were studied to determine whether they measure up to the criteria outlined by D. Stufflebeam's "Personnel Evaluation Standards" (1988). The applicability and interpretability of the "Standards" across 14 actual cases from local school districts in…

An evaluation of 11 university grants funded by the Louisiana Department of Education's Office of Special Education Services (OSES) during the 1989-90 academic year is presented. The methodology used was based on an evaluation format adopted by the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education for evaluating Louisiana Education Quality…

This report presents the results of an initial, iterative performance standards-setting (SS) task of a comprehensive on-the-job statewide teacher assessment system--the System for Teaching and Learning Assessment and Review (STAR). The 1990-91 STAR assesses and makes inferences about the quality of teaching and learning on sets of assessment…

Louisiana's State-Funded Compensatory/Remedial Program requires two different evaluations: a study of the statewide program and local evaluations conducted by the 66 public school systems involved in the program. The State Education Agency (SEA) evaluation unit is responsible for (1) conducting the statewide evaluation and (2) exercising quality…

The System for Teaching and Learning Assessment and Review (STAR) is a comprehensive on-the-job teacher assessment system designed to collect information and make important decisions about the quality of effective teaching and student learning in classrooms within an interactive framework of professional development and support. The Louisiana STAR…

Louisiana is one of the few states to produce and distribute school report cards to public school parents statewide. The state undertook a formal evaluation, here reported, of the "1991-92 Report Cards." In Phase 1 a random sample of roughly 2,000 parents and 6,000 faculty statewide was surveyed by mail with a 30-item questionnaire…

The effect of alternating criterion-referenced tests (CRTs) with norm-referenced tests (NRTs) when evaluating schools was studied in a sample of 242 Louisiana public elementary schools accounting for over 18,000 third graders tested in 1989. The study used five separate multiple regression models, each producing studentized residuals used as…

The purpose of this report was to explore one way in which quantitative and qualitative paradigms in program evaluation can be employed to reinforce each other. An evaluation was conducted of a large number of special education programs for preschoolers with handicaps in Louisiana. Since 1978, Louisiana has funded programs in 65 public school…

The Louisiana Intern Teacher Assessment Program, part of the Louisiana Teacher Appraisal System, began with a preliminary field test, followed by a pilot test and implementation in 1993-94. Evaluation of the preliminary field test was conducted through responses of 223 assessors, intern teachers, principals, and assessor trainers to nine different…

A case study approach was used to evaluate the statewide reading improvement project in Louisiana called Special Plan Upgrading Reading (SPUR). SPUR emphasized a change agent approach by providing Technical Assistants and small stipends (approximately $5,000) to participating school districts. During the first two years of the evaluation,…

This document contains four symposium papers on assessing employee performance. In "Influence of Liking and Similarity on Multi-rater Proficiency Ratings of Managerial Competencies" (Reid A. Bates), the pattern of correlations identified between raters, independent variables, and different competencies suggests that raters may react…

An evaluation was conducted of a comprehensive plan to restructure a primary school in Candler County, Georgia, into a non-graded, multi-age, continuous progress learning center. The project entailed restructuring the classroom, implementing a shared decision-making structure, developing a learning curriculum, and using portfolio assessment to…