Describes development of qualifying examinations in English and Welsh secondary schools. Evaluates forms and quality of testing in history. Presents suggestions by experts and changes made in England and Wales over 21-year period. Finds that most problems stemmed from desires to cover long periods of time while providing the depth of coverage…

Traditional evaluation approaches assume that consensus can be reached among policymakers, managers, and staff about goals that should guide a program. Evaluations of juvenile detention facilities and a home arrest program illustrate that consensus is not always possible. A constructionist evaluation approach is recommended for such situations.…

Five papers and an introduction discuss internal evaluation (IE), concentrating on the various sources of authority for IE and ways of enhancing IE authority. The roles of internal evaluators, conflicts in the evaluation process, and evaluation in a state education agency are reviewed. (SLD)

An approach for involving beneficiaries in specifying program attributes for evaluators to address is discussed. Methods are outlined for sharing influence among program decision makers and beneficiaries. Application of this approach in the evaluation of a problem-based medical school curriculum is described, with evidence on the enhancement of…

The most successful science-and-technology center exhibits owe as much to the evaluation of visitor reactions as they do to budgets and planning. Explores different types of visitor-evaluation studies and shares examples of successful exhibit designs built upon visitor evaluations, including children's physics exhibits and jellyfish as living art.…

Whether a success-promoting assessment schema (SPAS) can be designed to have a positive impact on the mathematics learning of failure-experienced students was studied with 200 noncollege-bound students in Israel. Results suggest that the SPAS in conjunction with suitable curricular materials could support student learning by changing student…

Critiques school reform evaluation and common misconceptions about it. The article warns against using evaluation to sort students in ways that hinder them from gaining quality education or force teachers into implementing school changes that are unresponsive to students' learning problems. Study findings involving school improvement efforts are…

Examines the validity of large-scale educational assessment, suggesting that construct validity is insufficient for assuming an achievement measure's internal validity and that the uses of assessment results affect external validity. Discusses the role of learning theory in large-scale assessment, purposes of large-scale assessment, item types and…

For some districts, the current obsession with data grows out of the need to comply with No Child Left Behind and additional accountability-related mandates. For others, it dates way back before the phrase "data-driven decision making" rolled so frequently off the tongues of educators. In either case, there is no denying that an integral…

In this paper it is presented a virtual organizational environment, conceived with the integration of three computer programs: a manufacturing simulation package, an automation of businesses processes (workflows), and business intelligence (Balanced Scorecard) software. It was created as a supporting tool for teaching IE, its purpose is to give…

As the context of special education has changed in the last quarter century, the role and work of the IEP team also has evolved. Today, the general education curriculum is central to the educational programs of all students. The expectation that is clearly communicated in federal policies and regulations, such as the No Child Left Behind Act and…

Principal-preparation programs require students to take research courses; however, principals are often unprepared to apply research skills in school settings. This paper discusses approaches to using data for decision making in a site-managed school. It describes one high school's efforts to apply research and recommends that…

Formative evaluation consists of assessing educational programs or other kinds of educational products while they are being developed to help shape them into their final forms. This publication is intended for those whose job it is to develop new programs and products or to evaluate them during development. Topics discussed include: (1) the nature…

This paper focuses on the mechanics of assessing the impact of educational technology. The basics of program evaluation, research design, data collection and analysis, and report generation are covered to provide useful information to those responsible for program evaluation research and to decision makers, who are the usual recipients of…

Assessment has always played an important role in counseling. This book provides information about the various psychological assessment procedures that are relevant for practicing counselors. The text deals with the use of tests that are most often employed by counselors and it includes case studies. Its purpose is to help counselors become better…