This research brief describes recent methodological initiatives with the Public Libraries Survey. It describes how starting with the 2022 data, Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) updated geographic identifiers to better align Census Bureau geography types with the library's legal service area, with the goal of enabling data users to…

The world has experienced rapid changes, leading to pressing issues such as environmental degradation, social inequality, and resource depletion. As a transdisciplinary field, evaluation has emerged as a crucial tool in addressing these challenges and promoting systemic change. However, concerns have been raised regarding the field's capacity to…

Disability-as-diagnosis, disability-as-identity, and disability-as-experience as pressing measurement issues in learning outcomes assessment are described in this paper. Disability represents a critically important latent variable in many learning outcomes assessment plans unless it is a formalized part of analytic plans. Noting the potential for…

Background: It would be easy to think the technological shifts in the digital revolution are simple incremental progressions in societal advancement. However, the nature of digital technology is resulting in qualitative differences in nearly all parts of daily life. Purpose: This paper investigates how the new possibilities for understanding,…

Learning Analytics (LA) is a field that aims to optimize learning through the study of dynamical processes occurring in the students' context. It covers the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about students and their contexts. This study aims at surveying existing research on LA to identify approaches, topics, and needs for…

Collaborative Evaluation systematically invites and engages stakeholders in program evaluation planning and implementation. Unlike "distanced" evaluation approaches, which reject stakeholder participation as evaluation team members, Collaborative Evaluation assumes that active, on-going engagement between evaluators and program staff,…

Purpose: By trailing data collection and analytical methods this study aims to address the dearth of research into the use of attending off-site events for professional learning. Design/methodology/approach: Three events, for academics and school leaders, were studied. A range of methods was trailed during 2006-2007, with the aim of collecting…

The aim of this study was to develop an instrument to evaluate the knowledge of preschool children about healthy lifestyle behavior. The innovation was that the instrument was designed to get direct evidence about healthy lifestyle from children aged 4-6 years old. Usually, children knowledge is estimated indirectly (parents, teachers), but the…

The School Improvement Project (SIP) and Local School Development Project are two school-based constituency planning programs. The Documentation Unit is responsible for ongoing documentation and evaluation of them. The goals of the unit included holistic school assessment, development of school based needs assessment and evaluation activities, and…

Potential sources of bias are classified as ethical compromises, value inertias, or cognitive limitations. Thirteen specifics of intuitive thinking and judgmental processes are described. The author wishes to alert naturalistic evaluators to common failings. This list can be a useful checklist in reducing, integrating and drawing inferences from…

The objective of this research is to provide an outline of evaluation by objectives for a conference entitled Project Evaluation. As far as processes are concerned, this evaluation will result in a session-by-session evaluation form and transparencies to accompany the session-by-session evaluation form and to reinforce the main points under…

Discusses the domain of measurement and evaluation: methods of data collection, focus of evaluation, criteria for evaluation, and purpose of evaluation. (MLH)

Describes a curriculum evaluation model that includes a focus of evaluation and the method of evaluation. Identifies three distinct modes of evaluation: unstructured subjective observation, semi-structured consensus of opinion, and structured objective observation. Outlines the role played by curriculum evaluation in science education today. (GS)

Before vocational instructional products are adopted for statewide dissemination in South Carolina, they must undergo a field test. An effective field test design incorporates collection of data about the instructional products, the students, and the teachers who use the products. The design of a control group and an experimental group compares…

This paper focuses on evaluation questions for teacher centers, with the emphasis being that the question is as important as the answer. The questioning may be ordered in nine points: (1) For whom are the questions and answers useful? (2) What effects are desired? How should teachers change after the program? (3) How will this change be…