One of the simplest indicators of teaching or course effectiveness is student ratings on one or more global items from the entire rating scale. That approach seems intuitively sound and easy to use. Global items have even been recommended by a few researchers to get a quick-read, at-a-glance summary for summative decisions about faculty. The…

The preceding articles in this issue describe a diverse range of projects which had in common the aim of implementing or improving the practice of formative assessment, and thereby to secure some of the benefits attributed to it. This article attempts to set up a framework within which each of the different studies may be located and…

Child assessment practices in English and Korean preschools were compared by analysing data from interviews with educators, examples of child assessment, and official documents from each country. Child assessment in England was systematically implemented and characterised by several methodological and procedural strengths, whereas assessment in…

A long-held ambition for many educators and assessment experts has been to integrate summative and formative assessments so that data from external assessments used for system monitoring may also be used to shape teaching and learning in classrooms. In turn, classroom-based assessments may provide valuable data for decision makers at school and…

This article chronicles the evolution of a large research extensive institution's General Education writing assessment efforts from an initial summative focus to a formative, improvement focus. The methods of assessment, which changed as the assessment purpose evolved, are described. As more data were collected, the measurement tool was…

Critically examines five issues surrounding the use of student evaluations of teaching for summative decisions: current practices, validity concerns, improving the reporting of results, improving the decision-making process, and incorporating validity estimates into the decision-making process. Concludes with a list of recommendations for…

Responds to Abrami's proposals in "Improving Judgments about Teaching Effectiveness Using Teacher Rating Forms." Draws from comments made by members of an American Education Research Association special interest group and offers a personal perspective. (EV)

Preceding articles in this issue, "Improving Judgments about Teaching Effectiveness Using Teacher Rating Forms" (Abrami) and "Can We Put Precision into Practices? Commentary and Thoughts Engendered by Abrami's 'Improving Judgments about Teacher Effectiveness Using Teacher Rating Forms,'" offered: (1) Abrami's proposals to…

Examines principles to consider when evaluating the impact of outdoor-based experiences, including developing a rationale for the evaluation, determining the emphasis of the evaluation, and applying appropriate criteria to the evaluation process. Discusses difficulties associated with control groups, sampling bias, time period of evaluation, and…

The dynamic interplay between internal and external evaluation in formative and summative studies of an intervention program aimed at promoting mathematics, science, and technology education was explored. Results emphasize the need to define the roles of formative and summative evaluation and the contributions of internal and external evaluators…

Examines perspectives of Barbadian teachers on existing methods for evaluating teachers and on recommendations set forth in the literature. Results revealed support for evaluation but much dissatisfaction with existing methods. Points out that primary teachers are more inclined to believe that evaluation is a basis for promotion. (KO)

The chapters in this book address four major concerns in the field of curriculum evaluation. The first chapter focuses on the formative evaluation of educational programs, concentrating on the link between program development and formative evaluation. The second chapter--"Evaluating Curriculum Implementation"--presents a classification scheme for…