Purpose: This AERI-NEPC eBrief, the fourth in a series titled "Understanding validity issues around the world", looks closely at issues surrounding the validity of test-based actions in educational accountability and school improvement contexts. The specific discussions here focus testing issues in the US. However, the general principles…

In "Holding Accountability to Account: How Scholarship and Experience in Other Fields Inform Exploration of Performance Incentives in Education"--a paper presented at the National Center on Performance Incentives research to policy conference in February--Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, argues educational…

Evaluations occur within a political decision-making mileau, where multiple stakeholders are contending for limited funds. Given the subjective basis of empirical information, different conclusions or recommendations about a program may result from different ideological, theoretical, and disciplinary perspectives. The logic behind the…

The need for competent formal evaluation programs, particularly for new federally assisted programs, is expressed. Problems in defining educational evaluation and its requirements, in designing such evaluations, and 3 possible sources of faulty conceptual bases for evaluations, are presented. An attempt is made to define evaluation in general, to…

There has been increasing concern about the accountability of federal programs in complying with laws and regulations and in achieving desired results. At the request of Congress, the Government Accounting Office examined how the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ensures Head Start accountability. Data were collected by means of…

The U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) believes that randomized field trials hold the same promise for improving education as they have had for medical practices. When research studies in education are designed using an experimental model, they are more likely to result in outcomes that can be attributed to the intervention and not to other…

This paper presents a discussion of issues raised in the evaluation of Project Follow Through reported by Abt Associates. The paper suggests that many of the problems inherent in the design of both the program and the evaluation stem from the underlying assumption that one educational model could be found which would best alleviate the educational…

The terms educational accountability and educational evaluation are clarified, and problems involved in assessing college effectiveness and developing objective criteria for accountability are discussed. (MS)

The main theme of the conference was the politics of adult education research. The following papers from the conference are included in this compilation, following the opening address (Nisbet): "Some Tension Points in Adult Education Research" (Bryant and Usher); "Key Issues in Adult Education Research" (Gerver); "Some…

Intended for the classroom teacher, this review of first generation career education research is based primarily on Edwin L. Herr's comprehensive review and synthesis, "Research in Career Education: The State of the Art" (ED 149 177). Herr's major findings have been summarized in a list of statements. For example, two of these statements…

A model for research and evaluation in outdoor education is presented in this paper which includes a bibliography of representative research in outdoor, experiential education. The model stresses close interaction between program designers and evaluators and rests on the premise that the strength of outdoor education--interaction between people,…

At the 1989 meeting of the National Faculty of the Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST), faculty members were invited to present testimony on what they viewed as the most pressing research and policy issues in the fields of testing, evaluation, and standards. These views are expressed in this document,…