This article seeks to spark a dialectic discussion on the establishment of a set of professional competencies for quality assurance practitioners who serve in external quality assurance agencies in higher education. Such a need is identified due to the shortage of relevant and sufficient coverage in the quality assurance literature. To…

A contingency model of evaluation competencies is presented concerning the types and levels of professional competency an evaluator should have. Four broad categories of competency (policy analysis, administrative, interpersonal/personal, and technical) are identified along with three different levels of criteria of acceptable performance.…

Robert Stake presents his views on responsive evaluation, naturalistic approaches to evaluation, the role of testing in evaluation, and the training of evaluators. (BW)

What a realistic training program should require, given a broad scope of research methodology, is discussed. Considering the core of evaluation research training, the diversity of methodologies raises issues about what is to be taught and how the involvement of students in actual projects is discussed. (Author/GK)

Considered fundamentally a scientific enterprise, evaluation research also requires artistic skills. The latter are essential to in-house evaluators, more so than to extrainstitutional evaluators. A training model is suggested. (Author/GK)

Certain expectations that federal officials have about evaluation researchers are discussed. Included are: (1) presence of a clear understanding of what evaluation means; (2) procedure for carrying out an evaluation; and (3) understanding by the evaluator of how the research relates to the decision-making process. (Author/GK)

If program evaluation is to continue its decade-long advance as a specialized field and make contributions at both the operational and policy-setting levels, evaluators must receive a basic education in the theoretical, substantive, methodological, and organizational elements pertinent to their roles. (Author)

Included are listings of important books, journals and newsletters; brief descriptions of the major professional societies in the program evaluation field (including membership information); a listing of resources for evaluation training materials; and a brief discussion of targeted research on evaluation. (Author/RL)

The efforts of the Louisiana State Department of Education Bureau of Evaluation to provide a valid and useful system for evaluation is presented in this overview. The focus is on the quality assurance and control functions of the Bureau in evaluating educational programs, conducting evaluation research on issues relevant to education in Louisiana,…

Presents a model for developing a strategy for training evaluation, according to the purpose of the evaluation or who is being evaluated. (MF)

Competent practice in the field of evaluation calls upon many skills, which all can be taught. This paper suggests one perspective on how these evaluation skills could be acquired. A seven-item question-and-answer format is used to respond to a panel discussing structuring a program to prepare professional evaluators. The following questions are…

Issues that must be dealt with when training recreation managers about evaluation skills are discussed and training strategies, such as simulation and case studies, are explored. The importance of converting evaluation techniques and theory into useful daily practices is stressed, whether the training takes place in the classroom or in a staff…

The Regional Seminar on Educational Evaluation held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, from 7 April to 2 May 1975, was organized as a follow-up activity to a study carried out by the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP, Paris) in 1973-1974. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development had in 1973 requested the IIEP to…

This guide was written to provide educational practitioners with a convenient, comprehensive, accurate source of information about evaluation training materials. Criteria for inclusion in this guide were (1) that the product was developed by a federally funded laboratory or research and development center; (2) that the product, or some part of it,…

The Action Training Model (ATM) was developed for the delivery of evaluation training to development workers in Kenya and Botswana and implemented under the aegis of the German Foundation for International Development. Training of evaluators is a challenge in any context, but in the Third World environment, evaluation training offers special…