From a sociocultural perspective to assessment, this study investigated parents' beliefs about formative assessment. When North Carolina (NC) received an Early Learning Challenge Grant, its Department of Public Instruction was funded to develop a kindergarten entry assessment. The department proposed the development of a kindergarten to third…

Preparing future citizens for postsecondary education and careers that span a continuum of sophistication is not a new topic in education. However, the rapid changes in technology and increased competition from industrialized nations have changed the landscape and meaning of college and career readiness. As part of a strategy to better prepare…

Educational systems evaluation is a cyclical process of delineating, obtaining, and providing information for judging decision alternatives. As such, it encompasses much more than measurement. Methods for evaluating systems must be developed, because activities and orientations at this level differ from those of individual students, curricula, or…

At some point in their educations, students must learn copious amounts of information. To do this, they use a variety of well-known strategies such as study groups, note-taking services, and videotapes of lectures. In fall 2004, a group of first-year dental students at the University of Michigan (U-M) School of Dentistry asked to have all dental…

The purpose is to codify some program evaluation principles and provide a framework for program evaluation practices. Specifically: (1) common evaluation purposes are listed along with the general methods of investigation most apt for each purpose; (2) types of sources of evidence are listed and are associated with general methods of…

Funded under the provisions of the Women's Educational Equity Act (WEEA) of 1974, project NEED (National Educational Equity Demonstration) evaluated two methodologies designed to assist in implementing educational change and demonstrating the innovations: the Wolf Welsh Linkage Methodology (WWLM), which provides a standardized synthesis of the…

This guide was designed as part of a training system for administrators who are responsible for conducting all or part of an evaluation, or for using evaluation results in program planning. The workshop guide is supplemented by the administrator's manual (see TM 007 177). The full workshop involves twelve hours of training, usually presented over…

One-week workshops for Preparing Educational Training Constultants: Skills Training (I) (PETC-I) were given to members of two teacher training networks: the Florida Teacher Education Centers (TEC's) and the Midwest Institute for Individually Guided Instruction (IGE). PETC-I is an instructional system which can be used for trainers in existing…

Education in contemporary society is no longer the selective enterprise for which a product evaluation approach is appropriate. Process evaluation, however, complements a new view of education--education offers all students opportunities for individual growth. A process approach focuses on what is understood. Focusing on learning activity and…

Alexander Astin, a pioneer in assessment research, has argued persuasively for building national databases that would permit programs and institutions to share common data and thus compare themselves with peers (1987, 1991). Others have suggested that certain process and outcome data should be collected and shared by disciplinary associations and…

The basic procedure in the evaluation of educational projects is described: clarification of project components and objectives; identification of information needs; assignment of priority rankings to objectives; allocation of resources, including personnel, money, and time; identification of data to be collected; construction of the evaluation…

This manual was designed for the administrator who has the responsibility for conducting all or part of an evaluation or is responsible for using evaluation results in program planning. The manual provides step-by-step guidelines to help: identify the purposes and audiences of an evaluation; prepare a basic description of the program or activity;…

Representing a set of required readings for those who would keep abreast of developments in the field of educational evaluation, this book presents nine chapters, each written by a recognized scholar on the topic being considered. Several chapters are also available as separate booklets, thereby increasing the flexibility with which the materials…

Because of the pragmatic need of school districts to respond to questions posed by those interested in their efforts to implement career education and the equally practical need to further its definition, there exists a demand to assess the results of efforts to implement the concept. The main body of this monograph provides an operational…

This document presents practical guidelines for evaluating community-based adult leaning projects in the United Kingdom to document their impacts. The guide provides frameworks, terms of reference, examples of methods used by community-based projects, ways of demonstrating project impact, and a range of evaluation tools. Sections 1 through 10…