Funded grant projects all involve some form of evaluation, and Advanced Technological Education (ATE) grants are no exception. Program evaluation serves as a critical component not only for evaluating if a project has met its intended and desired outcomes, but the evaluation process is also a central feature of the grant application itself.…

Increased demand for accountability has forced Extension educators to evaluate their programs and document program impacts. Due to this situation, some Extension educators may view evaluation simply as the task, imposed on them by administrators, of collecting outcome and impact data for accountability. They do not perceive evaluation as a useful…

Evaluation of programs or projects is often perceived as a threat. This is to a great extent related to the anticipated use of evaluation for accountability, which is often prioritized at the expense of using evaluation as a learning tool. Frequently it is argued that there is a trade-off between these two evaluation functions. An alternative…

This discussion foregrounds four key issues engaged by the articles presented in this special issue: the unique challenges and opportunities of environmental education evaluation, how to think well about the evaluation approaches and purposes that best match this domain, evaluation capacity building in environmental education and action, and…

The majority of funding for Extension comes from local, state, and federal dollars; therefore the primary driver for evaluation is accountability for public funds. Evaluation has always been a part of Extension program implementation; however, these efforts have historically been considered a necessary component rather than a priority. The need…

This article is an overview of current thinking in evaluation. The evaluation frameworks of Scriven, Provus, Stake, Guba, and Stufflebeam are discussed. (HD)

Author gives thourough treatment to alternatives evaluation purposes and problems. (Editor)

Describes a system that requires an individual to be accountable to other individuals for the management of programs.'' (Author)

Properly used, evaluation can be--and should be--more than a tool for measuring performance and establishing value. If evaluation is to be a useful tool of the change agent, he will have to borrow concepts and procedures from educational evaluation and adopt them to his needs. (Author)

The arguments for evaluation as a service versus evaluation as an accountability function are debated. Proponents of the evaluation as service approach often argue that information requested for self-renewal is the information most likely to be used while those who favor accountability as the appropriate role for evaluation claim that people will…

Suggestions for evaluation of school health programs are offered including specific steps--define objectives, appraise the present progress, evaluate the findings, and make recommendations. (JMF)

This article attempts to clarify issues concerning, and provide the background needed to understand, the roots and assumptions of the movement towards accountability as well as the movement to technologize curriculum planning and teaching. (RC)

Management and supervision in a management by objectives system do not focus on the quality or efficiency of a list of activities. Rather, the manager and supervisor validate progress in reaching agreed outcomes. The implementation of a management and supervision by results approach requires (a) agreement on a statement of mission; (b) agreement…

Regular program review is recommended for universities, preferably under the authority of the university rather than an external group. The policies and procedures of the University of Alberta since 1980 that allow for continuous review of all academic and support units with a minimum of formal procedures are described. (MSE)

Both the Evaluation Research Society and minimum competency testing proponents have searched for evaluation standards. A need exists for ethical standards which are universal and absolute, as well as methodolgical guidelines which are particular and relative. (CP)