Examples of the difficulties that public school program evaluators can have in explaning perplexing results are provided. Arguments abound over the best way to report a finding that has multiple interpretations or presentation options, and the enigma of realizing that one way to report a finding is not the only way, or even necessarily the best…

This paper examines whether the Title I/Chapter 1 tradition of leading the way in educational evaluation will continue or whether Chapter 1 will change its role by delegating decision-making authority over evaluation methodology to state and local school systems. Whatever direction Chapter 1 takes, states, school systems, and schools must be held…

This perspective on how testing and evaluation data are used and could be used for school improvement is based partly on the experience of the Austin (Texas) Public Schools and partly on their goals. Four conditions are necessary for the effective use of evaluation information: (1) real need; (2) trust in the evaluators and in the information…

For Texas's Career Ladder System of rewarding good teachers, teachers' performance evaluations from 1981 to 1984 were used to rank teachers in the Austin Independent School District. Significant biases were noted between raters, between years, and between elementary and secondary teacher ratings. To adjust for these biases, each teacher's raw…