Describes a study of pre-clinical students (N=91) that explored their reactions to formative assessment. Results indicate that the majority of the students reacted positively to the assessment, explaining that it enabled them to self- evaluate. Contains 16 references. (DDR)

Argues that process evaluation is needed to validate prison-based substance abuse treatment effectiveness. Five groups--inmates, treatment staff, prison staff, prison administration, and the parole board--should be a part of this process evaluation. Discusses these five groups relative to three stages of development of substance abuse treatment in…

Discusses the paucity of useful evaluation measures that administrators making decisions about selective college admissions have to work with. Argues that the implementation of national testing would allow for more formative assessment of college applicants and would encourage increased classroom instruction with a formative focus at the secondary…

Presents brief annotations of 20 books and journal articles (published between 1967 and 1997) identified by the contributors to this themed issue as useful for the work they present in this issue. (SR)

This eight chapters of this special issue introduce the use of a template to specify program components as a new tool for program evaluation. The template articulates the components needed for program delivery and provides a systematic method for assessing program implementation. (SLD)

Confirmative evaluation of instructional materials and learners follows some time after formative and summative evaluation; it determines if materials still meet the original objectives and if learners have maintained their level of competence. Discusses the importance of confirmative evaluation and presents a confirmative evaluation model,…

Discussion of how multimedia productions are perceived by others focuses on a study of an undergraduate course at the University of Lethbridge (Canada) that investigated whether peer and target population evaluations influenced the production of student-generated multimedia projects. Results suggest that formative evaluation activities encouraged…

Describes a quality control system for a curriculum-based, computer-based instruction (CBI) program that was developed by Florida State University's Center for Educational Technology (CET) for the U. S. Army's Job Skills Education Program (JSEP). Flow charts are presented and explained for each stage of the system. (six references) (LRW)

Proposes 13 trends that educational software development should follow. Four main areas are considered: (1) the computing environment, including hardware and networking; (2) software design, including learner control and hypermedia; (3) the user, or learner, including group activities; and (4) the software development process, including…

Describes a learner-centered revision class for undergraduate mathematics students at a Scottish university that used computer-assisted learning (CAL) and added an element of formative evaluation. The Computer Aided Learning in Mathematics (CALM) Project is explained, CALM software is discussed, and their influences on teaching strategies are…

Describes rough sets theory and discusses the advantages it offers for information retrieval, including the implicit inclusion of Boolean logic, term weighting, ranked retrieval output, and relevance feedback. Rough set formalism is compared to Boolean, vector, and fuzzy models of information retrieval and a small scale evaluation of rough sets is…

Topics related to the identification and use of effectiveness indicators in the economic analysis of education are discussed. These topics include the relation between economic concepts and educational production; the economic concept of utility; and the nature and use of input, process, output, and outcome indicators. (TJH)

Unless more resources are devoted to the development of social programs, summative evaluation will increasingly become a waste of time. Formative evaluation and tactical research will become more important to the extent that they actively assist in creation of social programs, increasing challenges to the integrity and validity of their work. (SLD)

The REDSIL model for ongoing evaluation of gifted education programs involves interviewing stakeholders, isolating and categorizing critical study issues, designing a data collection plan that uses several forms of qualitative methods, implementing the plan, analyzing data, searching literature relative to each issue, analyzing data again, and…

Compares the analysis, design, development, and evaluation of electronic performance support tools and systems to a traditional instructional systems design model. Topics discussed include indeterminate outcomes; rapid prototyping; front end analysis; intervention strategies; sequencing; user control; media selection; formative evaluation; and…