This case study is based on a program evaluation of a professional certificate program that trains early childhood care and education providers to build and support young children's emotional literacy. The research project described in the case study will address approaches to methodological combination, justifying research design and changes to…

This paper sets out to explore the perceptions of teachers towards assessment techniques at a secondary level private school of Karachi. This was conjectured on the basis of the circumstances of parallel boards in the education system of Pakistan and its effectiveness within the context with respect to the curriculum. This was gauged in line with…

Background and purpose: Research in formative assessment often pays close attention to the strategies which can be used by teachers. However, less emphasis in the literature seems to have been paid to study the application of formative assessment designs in practice. In this paper, we argue that a formative assessment design that we call…

This article reports on a formative and internal evaluation of teacher induction practices for newly hired teachers in a US university ESL program. By adopting a utilization-focused approach, evaluators produced a design that was articulated to the information needs of the evaluation users. The ensuing findings were then used to develop and…

This report describes a web-based assessment design tool, the Assessment Design and Delivery System (ADDS), that provides teachers both a structure and the resources required to develop and use quality assessments. The tool is applicable across subject domains. The heart of the ADDS is an assessment design workspace that allows teachers to…

Encourages the use of evaluation research rather than process, impact, or comprehensive evaluation; and notes that meaningful evaluation research can occur when the true experiment is combined with longitudinal designs. (JEG)

This guide is designed as a resource for leaders and evaluators of K-12 online learning programs. In this guide, the term "online learning" is used to refer to a range of education programs and resources in the K-12 arena, including distance learning courses offered by universities, private providers, or teachers at other schools;…

Two new directions for strengthening the evaluation and research efforts of school districts are discussed. The first direction is in developing a methodology for clarifying and systematizing formative evaluations; the second is in improving the attitude survey capabilities of school districts. (DB)

This chapter discusses current methods of formative evaluation and suggests that these methods themselves need to be subjected to more critical research and evaluation in order to provide them with a more scientific base. Topics addressed include problems and methods associated with data gathering, evaluation designs, number of subjects available,…

This chapter addresses the problems encountered in the formative evaluation of instructional development projects and the instructional development process. Three types of formative evaluation--component, convergent, and contextual--are distinguished, and the consequences of using the wrong type of evaluation in a particular situation or project…

Proposals satisfy a number of functions in evaluation work. This article examines how these functions differ depending on whether the proposal concerns a preordinate study in which methods are prespecified or an emergent study in which decisions about methods are made as the study proceeds. (Author/SLD)

The objective of this study was to adapt the ideas of "strong inference" in developing a design procedure which can be used in the evaluation of an instructional system in such a way as to identify and correct specific weaknesses within a system. This method allows the evaluator to consider many hypotheses as possible causes of system…

The goal of scaling up of educational innovation is to produce robust, effective, replicable outcomes. This report addresses requirements to support scale-up of scientifically vetted innovation (or new ideas that are built on the findings of quality research and development). In this report, a number of issues are considered: the context of…

An evaluation system which would describe and assess statewide services for preschool children is described. Component theory conceptualizes the unit of analysis for evaluation as the component. This approach increases the generalizability and utilization of evaluations and enhances the ability to evaluate several programs at the state level.…

A formative evaluation model is proposed for use by administrators of large health services research grant programs. The model assists in assessing the purpose, methodology, and level of analysis of funded research. It is illustrated through a discussion of HIV/AIDS care. (SLD)