This Digest addresses the benefits of formative assessment and provides examples and resources to support its implementation. Formative assessment is the diagnostic use of assessment to provide feedback to teachers and students over the course of instruction. Since the goal of formative assessment is to gain an understanding of what students know…

This digest identifies the issues which must be addressed to make instruments and procedures for assessing school counselor performance efficient, fair, valid, and useful. (BH)

This digest describes some of the basic logic-of-evaluation skills and some of the basic methodological skills that need to be mastered in order to practice the art and science of evaluation. Some topics from the logic of evaluation that must be dealt with include understanding : (1) the differences and connections between evaluation and other…

Research on student evaluation of college teachers' performance is briefly summarized. Lawrence M. Aleamoni offers four arguments in favor of student ratings: (1) students are the main source of information about the educational environment; (2) students are the most logical evaluators of student satisfaction and effectiveness of course elements;…

"The Program Evaluation Standards," established by 16 professional associations, identify evaluation principles that should result in improved program evaluations that address utility, propriety, feasibility, and accuracy. This digest summarizes these standards. Guidelines and illustrative cases to assist in meeting these standards are…

Among the different types of experimental design are two general categories: true experimental designs and quasi- experimental designs. True experimental designs include more than one purposively created group, common measured outcomes, and random assignment. Quasi-experimental designs are commonly used when random assignment is not practical or…

This digest identifies Internet resources of particular interest to the educational assessment community. Gopher sites and web sites are identified and discussed for the following organizations and institutions: (1) American Educational Research Association; (2) American Evaluation Association; (3) Arizona State University College of Education;…

With accurate information, educators are better able to make effective decisions. Besides being used to assess student performance, a complete program of data collection and use can also show educators how management skills, individual learning styles, and other elements affect student achievement. This digest provides an overview of how…

Today there are dozens of instruments that claim to measure leadership capacities. Although every instrument has limitations and must be used carefully, the tests can be used to identify leadership potential. This digest summarizes the reasons for using formal assessments, the attributes measured by such tests, the ways in which leadership…

With accurate information, educators are better able to make effective decisions. Besides being used to assess student performance, a complete program of data collection and use can also show educators how management skills, individual learning styles, and other elements affect student achievement. This digest in Spanish provides an overview of…

This digest addresses the role of evaluation and its basic logic, and provides a description of how the field is structured. In order to reach evaluative conclusions it is usually necessary to establish or identify factual promises and value premises. To obtain the required kind of overall evaluative conclusion, it is typically necessary to…

Much of the evaluation of vocational education at the state and local levels has been conducted in response to federal legislation. Although some of the evaluative information has been useful for program improvement, much has been collected only for compliance with federal and state mandates. The educational reform movement has prompted school…

The urgent need to improve big city schools has been a powerful incentive to adopt accountability systems. The following types of accountability systems may exist alongside each other: (1) political; (2) legal; (3) bureaucratic; (4) professional; and (5) market. Bureaucratic accountability is a "top down" system that holds teachers…

The purpose of this document is to address issues related to the release of test scores to a variety of audiences: parents, school board members, school staff, the news media, and the general public. Guidelines or recommendations for reporting test data are provided. The recommendations are based both on experiences in reporting test results and…

There are a great many types of violence prevention programs in schools, and many are demonstrating signs of success. Funders will not provide resources for programs, nor will schools know how to choose them, unless quality evaluation data are available to show their effectiveness and promise. Resources to conduct a meaningful evaluation are often…