Trying to understand PISA is analogous to the parable of the blind men and the elephant. There are many facets of the PISA program, and thus many ways to both applaud and critique this ambitious international program of assessment that has gained enormous importance in the crafting of contemporary educational policy. One of the facets discussed in…

This study analyzes how the world class university (WCU) project in Korea is perceived by participating international scholars and Korean principal investigators by conducting focus group interviews and utilizing semantic network analysis. While international scholars and Korean principal investigators agree that the success of WCU depends on…

Families of children with disabilities have been the subject of a number of myths, some of which have been introduced and promulgated by researchers influenced by cultural norms that may incline them to ask questions in particular ways and which may result in the institutionalization of ideas and methods, rather than subjecting established beliefs…

Teaching on the philosophies of evaluation as part of a pilot introductory course of a new diploma programme jointly sponsored by the United Nations (UN) Evaluation Group and the United Nations Staff College, the author compared and contrasted the "rationalistic" paradigm with the "naturalistic" paradigm on the basis of ontology, epistemology, and…

This article presents an overview, description, and assessment of the Associative Group Analysis method for studying conceptual development and changes in belief systems. Three specific applications to evaluation research tasks are used to illustrate its potential. Uses in areas of cross-cultural issues, beliefs, integration, and adaptation are…

Suggests that it is not possible to discuss technical aspects of technique and measurement until social scientists have come to grips with the epistemological and biographical problematics of the social sciences and their uses, especially the traditional frameworks, including those of race, that hinder the ability to evaluate culturally and…

Poses questions stimulated by Professor Stanfield's essay that evaluators must ask to ensure the equity of evaluations. The questions include examinations of the effects of racism on understanding and action and how program outcomes and evaluative judgments are conditioned by racially shaped assumptions, presumptions, and politics. (SLD)

Reports a meta-analysis of published cross-cultural self-construal research. Notes that the results across studies suggests that the evidence for the predicted cultural differences is weak, inconsistent, or nonexistent. Concludes that catastrophic validity problems exist in research involving the use of self-construal scales in cross-cultural…

Disagrees with Levine et al.'s conclusion (published in this issue, see CS 764 297) that the three self construal scales currently in use have "severe" or "fatal" flaws. Argues that the results of Levine et al.'s meta-analysis and priming studies do not raise problems with the validity of self construal scales. Concludes that the two-dimensional…

Addresses each of the three main areas of Levine et al.'s (see this issue, CS 764 297) validity testing: mean differences in self-construals between Asians and Westerners and within individuals; priming experiments; and factor analysis of self-construal scales. Suggests that Levine et al.'s conclusions on crucial aspects of validity are untenable.…

Offers a critical rejoinder in the discussion concerning the viability of self-construal scales. Disputes the arguments to the contrary offered by Gudykunst and Lee and Kim and Raja (see this issue, CS 764 298-299). Sees the potential utility in the self-construal construction, but the three primary scales fail to meet reasonable and accepted…

Discusses the inappropriate racial categorizations of minorities that have routinely infected evaluations and social research. By adhering to principles of democracy and including minorities as participants in dialogue, evaluators can avoid such damaging effects in their work. (Author/SLD)

Critiques the ways in which evaluators and professional organizations have come to terms with research on, issues about, and interests that impact people of color. Focuses on ways to create institutional change, including fostering the participation of researchers of color. (SLD)

In this article, a new method is presented and implemented for deriving a scale of socioeconomic status (SES) from international survey data using a multilevel Bayesian item response theory (IRT) model. The proposed model incorporates both international anchor items and nation-specific items and is able to (a) produce student family SES scores…

This article discusses issues related to selection and development of language assessment procedures for children who speak Spanish and English based on spontaneous language samples and shows how available procedures can be applied to research and clinical aims with these children. Sociolinguistic influences in Spanish-speaker language performance…