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 examines features of both process and impact evaluations to help officials of youth programs assess the programs for which they are responsible. With proper planning, evaluation can be part of a program without having to compete for attention and resources with the services the program is trying to provide. A process evaluation…

This digest in Spanish examines what is involved in evaluating whole-school reform programs. Such evaluations are necessary to renew Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) program grants and are intended to help schools determine what is working and what needs to be changed. Two primary goals of CSRD evaluation are to create a flexible…

This digest examines what is involved in evaluating whole-school reform programs. Such evaluations are necessary to renew Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) program grants and are intended to help schools determine what is working and what needs to be changed. Two primary goals of CSRD evaluation are to create a flexible design and…

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…

A portfolio is a meaningful collection of student work that tells the story of student achievement or growth. There are two basic reasons for doing portfolios--assessment or instruction. Benefits for using portfolios in instruction include the development of students self-reflection, critical thinking, responsibility for learning, and content area…

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…

Instructional development provides a procedure and framework for systematically planning, developing, and adapting instruction based on identifiable learner needs and content requirements, a process essential in distance education. Although instructional development models and processes abound, the majority follow the same basic stages of design,…

To achieve accountability, evaluation is needed concerning: the nature, structure, organization, and implementation of school district/building guidance programs; the school counselors and other personnel who are implementing the programs; and the impact the programs are having on students, the schools where they learn, and the communities in…

This digest, based on a full report of the same title, provides an examination of the improvement of college teaching and argues for the central involvement of faculty themselves in collaborative peer review and looks at some central issues and challenges to implementation. Since summative evaluation involved in tenure and promotion decisions…

A well-planned and well-conducted evaluation can provide useful information to funding agencies, sponsoring institutions, instructors, and participants. Evaluating an instructional program, such as a workshop or institute, involves collecting, organizing, analyzing, and reporting data about several features of the program and its impact on the…

Career counselors continually evaluate their work. Unfortunately, the evidence used to gauge success often is usually not considered valuative, is not documented, and cannot be used to back up claims of successful counseling. This digest outlines a new approach to evaluation. Since client-need determines counseling intervention, evaluation models…

Some steps to identify an initial set of indicators and to develop alternative indicator systems are outlined for educational evaluation and illustrated through the example of a National Science Foundation (NSF) study of mathematics and science education. The first step is to conceptualize potential indicators to specify a comprehensive monitoring…

One of the main obstacles to effective faculty evaluation is the inability to reach consensus on the evaluation's intended purpose. On one hand, faculty evaluation has a formative purpose, supporting faculty development, growth, and self-improvement, while it also has a summative purpose in that it provides data to make personnel decisions on…

Employment counseling is a set of interventions designed to help clients identify and resolve issues in employment-related decisions. This digest examines Canada's measurement model which was designed to enhance understanding of counseling's function. The model uses four employability dimensions: (1) career/occupation decision making; (2) skills…