A central task of evaluation is to use systematic inquiry to judge the merit, worth, and significance of programs. As a field in education, evaluation began to mature during the 1960s, when policy makers began funding researchers to study the impact of Great Society programs. Since that time, evaluation and policy-making have been intertwined,…

The author offers opinions regarding the resources invested in evaluation and the evaluators' awareness of the need to justify the profession in terms of social utility. (GK)

The dimensions of educational evaluation include conceptualization and technology of evaluation. The methods have been drawn from the area of educational and psychological research. The techniques of evaluation need to serve the information needs of clients, address the central value issues, deal with situational realities, meet requirements of…

At one time the major problems faced by an evaluator involved the best way to collect, analyze, and report data. Today, an evaluator's major problems concern responses to the evaluation report by school superintendents, principals, teachers, unions, and parents' groups. An unwillingness to publicize the evaluation results; the failure to consider…

This paper considers the manners in which three evaluation theorists may have altered their views regarding two major evaluation-related issues under consideration during the past 20 years. The theorists are Michael Scriven, Robert Stake, and Michael Patton, who are characterized as the philosopher-evaluator, responsive-evaluator, and…

Describes the purpose of evaluation, what benefits can be expected, and discusses the forces promoting and hindering the use of evaluative information. (Author/MLF)

Although evaluation practice in Israel is strongly influenced by American thinking, it is also a unique local response to societal, political, academic, cultural, and interpersonal pressures. In this interview Arieh Lewy discusses educational evaluation in Israel and the cultural context in which it operates. (Author/BS)

This commentary reviews "Negotiating Researcher Roles in Ethnographic Program Evaluation" and discusses the changing field of evaluation. It situates postmodern deliberations in evaluation anthropology and ethnoevaluation, two concepts that explore the interdisciplinary merger in evaluation, ethnography, and anthropology. Reflecting on Hymes's…

Should evaluators care about the impact of evaluation on the public policy process? If the larger purpose of evaluation is social betterment, the public policy arena affords tremendous opportunities for evaluators to have both short- and long-term impact by influencing policy formulation, implementation, and outcomes. Working in the public policy…

Should an educational evaluator be trained as a content specialist, an evaluation specialist, or some combination of the two? A content specialist has demonstratable expertise in the field of study being evaluated, but not training in evaluation methods; the evaluation specialist has expertise in evaluation methods but may know little about the…

Suggestions for broadening the utilization of evaluation research findings are discussed. Major program changes, based on evaluation, may not become obvious for several years; program actions may contradict findings and still be based on rational decision making processes; evaluation findings may have far-reaching effects which were not recognized…

With the theory that social and personal values influence the conduct of evaluation studies in education, the author discusses the impact of two major sources of such values--contextual factors, including political, social and organizational influences; and the terminology, models, and personal values of evaluators. Alternative purposes for an…

This speech concerns the dimensions of context-oriented evaluation and begins with a discussion of the differences between measurement, research, statistical methodology, and evaluation. Decision-oriented evaluation is described as a process in which the evaluator has, as a major concern, the responsibility to determine likely decisions prior to…

A new role for evaluators is proposed, which reconstructs the evaluator into an information specialist who is part of a project team engaged in self evaluation. The evaluator's role has traditionally been complicated by disagreements about what is expected from the evaluator; by differing perceptions about the evaluator's power to effect change;…

The author describes the Content, Input, Process, and Product (CIPP) evaluation model as it was implemented in the Saginaw Public Schools in Michigan. As school superintendent in Saginaw, he describes how the CIPP model provided information to administrators for answering four basic questions: (1) what should we do? (2) how should we do it? (3)…