An evaluation is designed to judge the worth of a program in regards to whether or not it should be continued, modified, or eliminated. Program evaluations can be performed either by those inside or outside of the organization, and can occur pre-implementation, during implementation, or at the end of a time period. There are many models or methods…

Background: Validity is a central concern in any assessment, though this has often not been made explicit in the UK assessment context. This article applies current validity theorising, largely derived from American formulations, to national curriculum assessments in England. Purpose: The aim is to consider validity arguments in relation to the…

Background: National curriculum tests have been administered in England for well over a decade. Although reliability evidence has been published, critics have argued that there is not enough evidence (of the right kind) and that test results may be insufficiently reliable. Purpose: This article collates and discusses evidence on the reliability of…

Most of the evaluation activity associated with the Individually Prescribed Instruction (IPI) Project is formative evaluation, that is, evaluation that provides feedback for indicating areas or operations where improvements are needed. This paper describes the program for formative evaluation and presents some data obtained in some representative…

The author discusses the difficulties that might be encountered in using various assessments and examinations in evaluative exercises. In particular, the discussion focuses on assessments that are presented in the form of examination results. The author also discusses an approach to a more school-based and hence potentially more useful form of…

These two pamphlets describe the evaluation process for Elementary Secondary Education Act Title I programs. In nontechnical language, they define evaluation, discuss the evaluation method used with Title I programs, and explain the format and content of the summary evaluation reports. The first pamphlet is in English; the second is a Spanish…

The path from a collection of observations and measurements to a set of warranted conclusions is fraught with hazards. This chapter describes the path and offers some guidance on how to negotiate it. It also discusses presenting results in a way that can be understood by nontechnically trained persons. It should enable the reader to better…

The purpose of this study was to design, produce, and evaluate testing reports that would be useful and meaningful at the classroom level: reports that would be useful to teachers and informative to parents, without making time demands on teachers in either preparation of the reports or in inservice training in educational measurement. The Iowa…

A training program carried out by the Center for Early Education (CEE) to prepare or upgrade the performance of 20 day-care administrators in Los Angeles County is discussed as to the program, evaluation, and findings. The program, consisting of 2 three-week workshops and six interim seminars, was designed to achieve 12 goals relating to child…

The Normal Curve Equivalent (NCE) gain statistic is examined, and considerations for its interpretation are highlighted. The NCE gain is made up of an observed and an expected part. The observed score is the posttest result. The expected score can never be observed nor verified for any of the Title I Evaluation and Reporting System (TIERS) models;…

In many instances, the promotion of educational assessments has been viewed as a threat to some groups. Carefully conceived operational and analysis plans for state assessment may have little impact unless the purposes of assessment are clear and diffusion and utilization of information are well planned. Equally important is the provision of…

Intended for use by career education program staff and by evaluators in reviewing draft evaluation reports, this checklist is a guide for ensuring that evaluation reports contain all the information needed by others in interpreting reported results. It applies only to the sections of evaluation reports concerning programs' impact on students and…

The document presents an evaluation of the Cashmere, Peshastin-Dryden, Washington School District's project to establish a comprehensive K-12 career education program, with emphasis placed upon the formative and summative stages. Background information is provided in the following chapters: (1) Objects of Evaluation discusses the evaluation model…

This paper describes a Piagetian-based evaluation measure and results obtained from the use of this measure with 1260 pre-kindergarten inner-city children. The children were enrolled in a program designed to develop their readiness skills. Family income, limited educational opportunities of adult members of the family, and dependency on public…

The Texarkana model of performance contracting consists of five major elements: (1) turnkeying of cost-effective new technology as a basic program goal, (2) use of a performance contract for instruction, (3) use of a management support contractor, (4) selection of the learning system contractor by formal competition, and (5) use of independent…