This article presents a content analysis of the 2013 School Leadership Program (SLP) grants. SLP projects provide a unique opportunity for participants in the field to explore innovative leadership preparation and development and their impact on program participants, schools, school districts, and students. The article begins with an overview of…

Engagement is one of the most widely misused and overgeneralized constructs found in the educational, learning, instructional, and psychological sciences. The articles in this special issue represent a wide range of traditions and highlight several key conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and analytical issues related to defining and measuring…

Student Evaluations of Teaching (SETs) play a central role in modern academia. They are used for tenure, promotion, teaching improvement and other important decisions. One would think that the data collected from a SET would be analysed correctly, but such is typically not the case, as can be seen in this study later. Therefore we propose a…

Purpose: This paper proposes a benefit of the doubt (BoD) approach to construct and analyse teacher effectiveness scores (i.e. SET scores). Design/methodology/approach: The BoD approach is related to data envelopment analysis (DEA), a linear programming tool for evaluating the relative efficiency performance of a set of similar units (e.g. firms,…

Social scientists usually are more interested in consumers' dichotomous choice, such as purchase a product or not, adopt a technology or not, etc. However, up to date, there is nearly no model can help us solve the problem of multi-network effects comparison with a dichotomous dependent variable. Furthermore, the study of multi-network…

We estimated the invariance of educational achievement (EA) and learning attitudes (LA) measures across nations. A multi-group confirmatory factor analysis was used to estimate the invariance of educational achievement and learning attitudes across 55 nations (Programme for International Student Assessment [PISA] 2006 data, N = 354,203). The…

How many students repeat a grade each year? How do retention rates vary across states and over time? Despite extensive research on the predictors and consequences of grade retention, there is no systematic way to quantify state-level retention rates; even national estimates rely on imperfect proxy measures. We present a conceptually simple…

This report is the first volume of a projected series of "General Information Yearbooks" to be updated and published annually by the National Assessment of Educational Progress and is designed to aid the readers of the National Assessment's reports to understand the philosophies and goals of the project, its methods for developing…

Based on a theoretical model of program development, this taxonomy of evaluation relates six evaluation objectives or purposes to nine methodological alternatives. Use of the taxonomy may increase the efficiency of evaluation, improve communication, and assist in the choice of a methodology that is appropriate to the evaluation purposes.…

Evaluation design decisions for a child care provider training program are discussed as a function of three characteristics: decentralization, local autonomy and multiple delivery strategies. While decentralized process data were gathered, only centralized outcome data were collected. The design decisions made were appropriate for such diverse…

Explains and demonstrates time-series statistical analyses with a case example. Argues graphs and nonparometrical statistical analyses are not valid methods for evaluating behavior change due to counseling. Suggests the use of time-series statistical analyses enables counselors to employ a reliable method of measuring change in counseling…

A number of issues related to the development of evaluation methodology are discussed. These issues are as follows: the definition of the purpose, general strategies for the development of methodology, and methodological research. The evaluation methodology developed is for the purpose of providing data for decision making. Some specific…

Current thinking and research on the nature of formative evaluation of replicable forms of instruction are summarized. Methodologies appropriate for other evaluation roles (e.g. summative) are shown to be often inappropriate for the formative role. This paper attempts to classify sources of information concerning the merit of educational materials…

The authors have written this manual to aid workers in the Cooperative Extension Service of the United States to be better able to understand and apply the principles and methods of evaluation. The manual contains three sections which cover the nature and place of evaluation in extension work, the evaluation process, and the uses of evaluation…

This guide was designed for trainers presenting inservice workshops for program evaluators, teachers, principals, curriculum specialists, and others responsible for school programs. It is keyed to a companion volume, the Program Evaluator's Guide (ED l42 563), the primary source for workshop participants. Developed under the California Evaluation…