This article describes Local Education Authority (LEA) practices in England and Wales, with regard to institutional evaluation during the mid to late 1980s. It considers the various approaches and systems used and particularly looks at issues of information handling, reporting, follow-up, and adviser (inspector) training. (IAH)

Evaluation research is discussed as an applied social science that uses quantitative-comparative techniques to assess the effects of planned intervention. Focus is on the generally insufficient validity of treatment effectiveness research, and the relationship between research constructs and theory and their operationalization. (TJH)

The teacher evaluation environment of a parochial school district that tried to encourage teachers' professional growth was studied through a survey of 171 teachers and interviews with 40 teachers. Teachers perceived that attributes of the evaluator, feedback received, and evaluation procedures were the most important aspects of evaluation. (SLD)

Evaluation as a field has moved beyond debating whether certain designs are good while others are bad to begin to appreciate that each of a group of designs may have its uses. The importance of good designs that reflect real-world complexities is increasingly being recognized. (SLD)

A brief summary of standard setting knowledge is presented, derived from about 20 methods that utilize a judgmental review process, the approach most relevant to the standard-setting strategies proposed in this special issue. Criteria for judging effectiveness and critiques of the methods discussed in the issue are offered. (SLD)

The relationship between compensatory and noncompensatory information integration and the intensity of the halo effect in performance rating was studied. Seventy University of British Columbia (Canada) students rated 27 teacher profiles. That the way performance information is mentally integrated affects the intensity of halo error was supported.…

The construction of artificial profiles, or stimuli, for judgment analysis (JAN) is discussed. JAN is a technique for identifying and analyzing the policies of a group of judges for rating the profiles of personnel or applicants. Conditions under which artificial profiles are successfully used are discussed. (SLD)

The degree of agreement between two raters rating several objects for a single characteristic can be expressed through an association coefficient, such as the Pearson product-moment correlation. How to select an appropriate association coefficient, and the desirable properties and uses of a class of such coefficients--the Euclidean…

A good formative evaluator, who helps programs become as effective as possible, behaves remarkably like a good personal coach. Nine ways in which a formative evaluator can help a program manager are listed, and implications for practicing evaluators and the evaluation profession are detailed. (SLD)

Evaluation utilization problems encountered and remedial strategies are discussed by a director of several government evaluation studies and evaluation manager. Political and behavioral prerequisites to evaluation utilization as well as on-going organizational requirements are emphasized. (TJH)

An interior-design program was evaluated internally by faculty and externally by a review team. The assessment focused both on student work and on the program and resources. Differences in the two evaluations confirmed the importance of outside evaluators' perspectives for program improvement. (SK)

A study of 155 nurses and 300 nursing students indicated that students accepted clinical practitioners' roles as assessors, mentors, and supervisors. A Welsh study found that clinical practitioners described their relationship with students as mentoring. Questions about preparation and workload in mentoring, supervising, and assessing students…

Tested the ability of 154 female candidates to two Israeli educational programs to rate each other on oral communication, human interaction, and leadership skills compared to assessments of their skills by professional assessors. There were high correlations between professional and participant ratings; professional ratings were significantly…

The core roles involved in the evaluation of a community program called "Alternatives," aimed at safer use of medications by seniors, are described as community developer, research/evaluator, and community committee. The types of roles, the conflicts among them, and their positive interactions have implications for other field evaluations. (SLD)

The experiences of a group of evaluators evaluating a multisite integrated human service delivery system illustrate many design and measurement considerations in the preimplementation and implementation phases of evaluation. The reemergence of human service integration approaches will make such evaluation issues increasingly common. (SLD)