Peer evaluation has great potential as a method of improving classroom instruction and enhancing the self-esteem and professional growth of teachers. The peer evaluation format would be more formative than summative and might include team teaching, videotaping, and reflective teaching--a carefully structured method of peer teaching. (JHZ)

Discusses the focus group interview as an effective method of eliciting public opinions at three points in the media production process--concept development, script completion, and completion of rough cut. Interview characteristics, objectives, respondent characteristics, moderator role, physical arrangements, interview techniques, and data…

The pooled judgements of evaluators and users of evaluations on eight panels examining eight simulated evaluation situations in higher education were analyzed. Choices regarding evaluation phases and tactics were found to be dependent on evaluation goals (wether the evaluation has a formative or summative purpose) and contextual variables.…

Two case studies provide examples of citizen and program participant involvement in program evaluation. The Reflective Appraisal of Programs at Cornell Cooperative Extension involves volunteer interviewers of participants; the Lancaster County (Pennsylvania) Office of Mental Health/Mental Retardation is reviewed by a volunteer citizens' committee.…

During the summer and fall of 2003, Education Development Center's Center for Children and Technology (CCT) undertook a formative evaluation of the Intel Innovation in Education institutes. The institutes are one- to two-and-a-half day district-level trainings intended to introduce professional development providers to the online resources and…

Consistent with the longitudinal evaluation of the Intel Teach to the Future Essentials Course that Education Development Center's Center for Children and Technology (CCT) has been conducting since the program's inception in 2000, the Intel Foundation commissioned CCT to conduct a formative evaluation of the Leadership Forum Pilot program. This…

The National Research Center on Learning Disabilities produced this guide to assist state education agencies in working through the many issues associated with developing specific learning disability (SLD) identification policies and procedures. An introductory section describes current understanding of the issues surrounding SLD identification,…

The GenScope Assessment Project is studying assessment in the context of a month-long computer-supported learning environment for introductory genetics. Across three annual iterations with multiple teachers, project researchers manipulated the materials, incentives, and contexts in which students were invited to use formative feedback on…

Corporate and educational settings increasingly require decision making, problem solving and other complex cognitive skills to handle ill-structured, or heuristic, tasks, but the growing need for heuristic task expertise has outpaced the refinement of task analysis methods for heuristic expertise. The Heuristic Task Analysis (HTA) Method was…

This issues paper, the fourth in a series of eight, is intended to distill formative evaluation questions on topics that are central to the development of the higher and further education information environment in the United Kingdom. As the online environment becomes a feature of teaching and learning, it offers lecturers the opportunity to…

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 document discusses the importance of maintaining the quality of DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) occupational analyses and presents a 2-page checklist detailing DACUM quality performance criteria. The introduction to the checklist discusses various "infractions" discovered during an analyses of some curriculum/program developers'…

This guide is designed to help school district leaders promote comprehensive school reform (CSR) and to assist schools in evaluating the implementation and outcomes of their CSR models. The guide discusses why evaluation is critical and how to use it as a tool for continuous improvement in CSR models. Summative and formative evaluations are…

Ninety teachers in grades three through six were asked to judge the likelihood of their students' passing Ohio's Fourth or Sixth Grade Proficiency Tests. Judgment ratings consisted of "likely to pass,""uncertain to pass," or "unlikely to pass." These ratings were collected in January 1998, 3 months prior to the…

A formative evaluation was conducted to determine the types and amount of dissemination and services the Pacific Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) provided to its constituency in the first 9 months of 1999. The evaluation also studied how recipients of REL products and services perceived the usefulness and quality of the products and services…