Institutions of higher education are asked to consider how their work can advance equity in institutional outcomes. Assessment, too, has been asked to consider the ways in which traditional student assessment "privileges and validates certain types of learning and evidence of learning over others" (Montenegro and Jankowski 2017, p. 5).…

The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), a unit within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), is responsible for advising the Assistant Secretary for Children and Families on increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of programs to improve the economic and social well-being of children and families. In collaboration…

Using examples from an evaluation design of a bilingual preschool program, the authors have developed a paradigm resting on contextually based evaluation and involving implementation strategies and participant researchers. Multiple methods of gathering environment-specific data are used in the process. (MH)

A survey covered categories of budget, organization, staff resources, activities, and reporting techniques and policies; the survey revealed Research and Evaluation (R and E) offices received federal or state funding. Therefore, most retain financial independence from programs evaluated. The best placement of R and E offices in the school…

One of a series of reports concerned with the creation of new evaluation methodologies for use in education, this report contains a collection of thirteen brief statements of problems encountered first-hand by evaluation practitioners in state departments of education (SEAs). Its intent is to make available practitioner statements so that further…

Questions are raised about the future of research and development evaluation. Without a set of overarching policy questions or theoretical questions, evaluation data are simply not cumulative and cannot be organized into any data base. Education has never been a data-based enterprise. The meaning of evaluation should be broadened to include the…

In fall 2003, the Head Start Bureau began implementing the Head Start National Reporting System (NRS) to systematically assess the early literacy, language and numeracy skills of all 4- and 5-year-olds enrolled in Head Start. In addition to child progression on a designated set of outcomes during the year preceding kindergarten, the data will…

The basic procedure in the evaluation of educational projects is described: clarification of project components and objectives; identification of information needs; assignment of priority rankings to objectives; allocation of resources, including personnel, money, and time; identification of data to be collected; construction of the evaluation…

A set of 13 key characteristics is presented as a framework for educational evaluation studies: (1) program's stage of development when evaluator is appointed; (2) program's openness to revision; (3) program uniformity from site to site; (4) specificity of program objectives; (5) evaluator's independence; (6) evaluator's orientation to value…

Evaluation training materials developed by federally funded research and development laboratories were surveyed, analyzed, and described. This project included the collection and analysis of training materials, and the development of The Consumer's Guide to Evaluation Training Materials. This final report describes the rationale, purpose, and…

Four evaluation methods for determining educational policy are objectivism; subjectivism; emotive-imperative; and instrumentalism. For the objectivist, the rationale for undertaking an evaluation is based on empirical verification or non-verification of claims of existing policies or activities. Secondly, the objectivist is interested in…

During May of 1985, an external audit team was engaged by the Lorain (Ohio) City Schools to assess implementation of the seven correlates of an effective school. The correlates, developed by the Ohio State Department of Education, included: (1) a sense of mission; (2) strong building leadership; (3) high expectations for all students and staff;…

On the assumption that individual teachers are the primary agents for developing more effective education, the Cleveland Public Schools began a four-year teacher-based change project entitled Planning Educational Environments for Cleveland Children in two volunteer schools. The various evaluators in the project, however, assumed that the funding…