This paper initiates the AERA symposium on issues and methods in qualitative evaluation with a theoretical overview and critique of the state of the evaluation field in the United States. Some of the basic theoretical underpinnings to a qualitative approach to evaluation are presented. This type of approach complements and compensates for those…

The relative utilities of subjectivity and objectivity in educational evaluation are debated. Page supports objectivity, while Stake supports subjectivity. (JKS)

Arts-In-Education programs are among those curricula currently being evaluated in a day when all expenditures in education are being challenged. There are different ways to evaluate programs and no one way is the right way. Focuses on the responsibility of the evaluator and on how evaluation can effectively perform a service. (Author/RK)

This survey of recent developments in educational program evaluation is intended for persons who commission, implement, direct, or carry out evaluation studies. The attitudes of government officials, educators, and researchers toward assessment and their own evaluation needs are discussed. Various approaches to evaluation are briefly described;…

A responsive educational evaluation is oriented more to program activities than to program intents, and stresses learning about the needs of the evaluation's audience, so that these value perspectives can be noted in reporting the successes and failures of the program. Most evaluation plans are more preordinate, emphasizing: (1) statements of…