How do the various ideas currently used in conceptualizing and modeling evaluation relate to the administrator? How can he best use them in guiding his institution in evaluation? This paper summarizes some of the major trends of thought related to evaluation and explores them from an administrative rather than from a research or instructional…

This speech describes some of the experiences encountered by an auditor during the audit process and the reactions of LEA and project personnel to the audit. The presentation focuses on the audit methods as viewed by an educational researcher. The discussion also attempts to point out some alternatives to the audit process and the problem areas…

Public Education in Colorado is serving as a demonstration project for the Cooperative Accountability Project, as well as for its own accountability statute. An analysis of accountability progress resulting from data gathered from the second annual accountability report is discussed and summarized. Current Colorado Department of Education…

A summary of legislation concerning educational accountability reveals that 13 States hope to find greater accountability in testing or assessment programs, 7 in planning, programming, budgeting systems, 4 in uniform accounting system, 8 in the evaluation of professional employees, 2 in management information systems, and 1 in performance…

Six principles for statewide assessment are discussed: (1) involve the community; (2) specify and define goals; (3) use measuring devices with face and content validity; (4) take noncognitive effects of school into account; (5) design data presentation for lay understanding; and (6) do not let assessment be an end in itself. Decisions to be made…

It is axiomatic that an evaluation demands a statement of goal, for without a goal there can be no judgment of progress or success. Goal statements spring from two major sources: experience or theory. One source has its foundation in the present. The other has its genesis in the envisioned future. The former is generally a comparison with the…

This paper describes an effort to implement a cost-effectiveness program using systems analysis in an elementary school district, the Rio Linda Union School District in California. The systems design cycle employed has three phases, policy-making evaluation, and action-implementation. During the first phase, the general philosophy or mission of…

Some of the general considerations and requirements for the establishment of a testing policy and procedures for a large education system are presented. Testing policy is considered necessary to establish a common understanding of the position of testing in the education program, the facilitation of the use of tests for academic gain, and to…

Under the present practices, the objectives and activities of socially oriented projects have rarely been specified with enough clarity and concreteness. Alternatives have been insufficiently presented for consideration by top management. In a number of cases, the future costs of present decisions have not been laid out systematically enough and…

The Bureau of Indian Affairs Task Force on Testing has developed a testing policy to aid Native American students in securing quality education and to improve the quality of the Bureau's educational programs. The Task Force reached the conclusion that most if not all commercially available standardized or norm-referenced tests unfairly…

Described are aspects of the Computers As Partners Project (CAPP) of the Department of Individual and Family Studies, College of Human Resources, University of Delaware. Originally known as the Computer Active Preschool Project, the CAPP began in January, 1983 as a pilot program designed to determine the best ways to integrate computers into early…

This paper presents the rationale, techniques, and structure used to develop and implement an evaluation-accountability program for a new regional Education Service Center in Texas. Needs assessment, a critical element in this model, consists of objectively identifying the educational needs of clients and establishing an initial list of…

Participant qualifications, activities, program objectives, and benefits to participants and sponsors of geography internship programs at American colleges and universities are assessed. The major purpose of the paper is to provide insights about internship programs to potential program directors and student interns. In the area of grade…

The dilemmas faced by the educational research community generally raise important implications for the new National Institute of Education. Pressing social problems require immediate solution, however, demands for immediate results in the complex problem areas of education may lead to incompletely conceived programs and sloppy scholarship.…

In this paper, the authors report on a project designed to enhance an educational system's capability for introducing and regenerating change and to develop and evaluate one specific strategy for implementing "second generation" planned change. The operation model views teachers as the key variable in the introduction of planned change.…