Educational evaluation in too many states and school districts, if done at all across an institution, has been reduced to crunching test scores in only the subject areas and grade levels tested. While measuring student achievement in reliable and valid ways is an important part of the mission of education, it is not enough. What's also needed is a…

Environmental education organizations can do more to either institute evaluation or improve the quality of their evaluation. In an effort to help evaluators bridge the gap between the potential for high quality evaluation systems to improve environmental education, and the low level of evaluation in actual practice, we reviewed recent…

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…

Never before in the history of the teaching profession has there been such a need for comprehensive evaluation of all teacher preparation programs, most especially professional development schools (PDSs). This need is driven not only by the pressures of the age of accountability, but also by the need for the PDS movement to act ethically and…

We join the authors in this special issue in their call to embrace a culture of evaluation. Obstacles to change are formidable. Educators debate their purpose--provide knowledge or achieve environmental goals--and we have limited evidence of the effectiveness of environmental programs and policies. Change requires collaboration across…

The evaluation of educational programs is often inconsistent with the need for imaginative innovations for educational improvement. Premature evaluation, preoccupation with "hard data" developed by the mass use of standardized tests, concern only for final results, lack of imagination, requirements that all projects in a program make provisions…

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

Stresses the importance of careful planning prior to the beginning of an evaluation effort and discusses a number of basic questions that a community educator should consider in planning any evaluation program. (JG)

The potential social impact of the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), originator of Sesame Street, the Electric Company, and other innovative educational ventures, and the fact that it is supported largely by public monies are strong reasons for examining the full implications of the workshop's achievements. This study was designed to identify…

With an increasing prevalence of virtual high school programs in the United States, a better understanding of evaluative tools available for distance educators and administrators is needed. These evaluative tools would provide opportunities for assessment and a determination of success within virtual schools. This article seeks to provide an…

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)

Notes that behind its unique classroom activities--the foreign language courses and the dance lessons--the alternative school program of the Cincinnati School District is largely a network of unknowns. (Author/AM)

Designed for use with the Research for Better Schools career education program, this evaluation planning manual focuses on procedures and issues central to planning the evaluation of an educational program. Following a statement on the need for evaluation, nine sequential steps for evaluation planning are discussed. The first two steps, program…

Discusses the need for standards for the evaluation of educational programs, projects, and materials, and describes the development of such standards by a joint committee representing 12 organizations with widely differing constituencies. (Author)

Evaluation is a process of systematically gathering information on a regular, continuing basis to make informed judgments about the merits of a program or an activity. This discussion of evaluation issues and procedures represents an attempt to place the role of evaluation in perspective and to provide guidelines and suggest approaches,…