Efforts to promote professionalism in evaluation, whether through certification, credentialing, or other path, are not new, but there is a new push to adopt sets of essential evaluator competencies, both in the United States and globally, that are intended to advance professionalism of the field. This emphasis on professionalism is relevant to the…

The systematic identification of evaluator competency training needs is crucial for the development of evaluators and the establishment of evaluation as a profession. Insight into essential competencies could help align training programs with field-specific needs, therefore clarifying expectations between evaluators, educators, and employers. This…

This article explores the overlaps and disconnects between the competencies evaluators acquire during graduate school and those required and desired by employers. To investigate this relationship, two different surveys are administered, one for job seekers and the other for employers; 205 postings in the American Evaluation Association job bank…

This article presents a comprehensive taxonomy of essential competencies for program evaluators. First, the authors provide a rationale for developing evaluator competencies, along with a brief history of the initial development and validation of the taxonomy of essential evaluator competencies in King, Stevahn, Ghere, and Minnema (2001). Second,…

In recent years educators have been utilizing judgmental methods, such as the ones advocated by Ebel and Angoff, to set minimum competency standards on test items. This study was designed to investigate the reliability and validity of these two procedures in setting minimum levels of performance on 175 vocational evaluator competency statements.…

Traditionally, judgmental standard setting methods have been used exclusively at the test item level. In this study, the Ebel and Angoff methods of standard setting were utilized to determine minimum competency standards on a list of 175 identified competency statements for vocational evaluators. The following research questions were addressed:…

The accuracy of standards obtained from judgmental methods is dependent on the quality of the judgments made by experts throughout the standard setting process. One important dimension of the quality of these judgments is the consistency of the judges' perceptions with item performance of minimally competent candidates. Several interrelated…

Possible sources of intrajudge inconsistency in standard setting are reviewed, and approaches are presented to improve the accuracy of rating. Procedures for providing judges with feedback through discussion or computerized communication are discussed. Monitoring and maintaining judges' consistency throughout the rating process are essential. (SLD)

The present study examines the influence of judges' item-related knowledge on setting standards for competency tests. Seventeen judges from different professions took a 122-item teacher-certification test in economics while setting competency standards for the test using the Angoff procedure. Judges tended to set higher standards for items they…

An approach is presented to the definition of minimal competence for judges to use in standard setting. Panelists in standard setting must receive training to ensure that differences in rating result from differences in perceptions of item difficulty, not in differences of opinion about the definition of minimal competence. (SLD)

Training judges to generate item ratings in standard setting once the reference group has been defined is discussed. It is proposed that sensitivity to the factors that determine difficulty can be improved through training. Three criteria for determining when training is sufficient are offered. (SLD)

A preliminary survey of 32 school districts identified as having highly developed teacher evaluation systems was followed by the selection of 4 case study districts (Salt Lake City, Utah; Lake Washington, Washington; Greenwich, Connecticut; and Toledo, Ohio) representing diverse teacher evaluation processes and organizational environments. Common…