Discusses some of the most common myths about student ratings of teacher effectiveness and looks at the evidence from research on these issues; concludes that student ratings can provide powerful and useful information. Offers recommendations on the proper implementation, interpretation, and use of such evaluations. (EV)

Patient satisfaction is an important indicator of the quality of nursing care. However, it raises numerous dilemmas: lack of consistent conceptualization and a theoretical framework, lack of reliable measurement approaches, and inconsistency of instruments. (SK)

Describes the a-e-I-o-u program evaluation approach, a framework for organizing key evaluation questions that allows for many models of evaluation and/or methods of data collection. Evaluations by users of the approach have indicated that it provides a practical way to organize evaluation questions and collect appropriate data. (GCP)

A graduate gerontology program includes an evaluation research course in which students learn and apply approaches, are exposed to literature, and design an evaluation plan. Students reported benefits from application and the seminar format, gained awareness of accountability to funders, and acquired a philosophy of professionalization. (SK)

Reliability and validity of Chinese Self-Report Family Inventory (C-SFI) were examined in three studies. Study 1 showed C-SFI was temporally stable and internally consistent. Study 2 indicated C-SFI could discriminate between clinical and nonclinical groups. Study 3 gave support for internal consistency, concurrent validity and construct validity.…

In this paper, I trace the development of statistical significance testing standards in sociology by analyzing data from articles published in two prestigious sociology journals between 1935 and 2000. I focus on the role of two key elements in the diffusion literature, contagion and rationality, as well as the role of institutional factors. I find…

A number of important applications require the clustering of binary data sets. Traditional nonhierarchical cluster analysis techniques, such as the popular K-means algorithm, can often be successfully applied to these data sets. However, the presence of masking variables in a data set can impede the ability of the K-means algorithm to recover the…

A linear combination of a set of measures is often sought as an overall score summarizing subject performance. The weights in this composite can be selected to maximize its reliability or to maximize its validity, and the optimal choice of weights is in general not the same for these two optimality criteria. We explore several relationships…

In applications of structural equation modeling, it is often desirable to obtain measures of uncertainty for special functions of model parameters. This article provides a didactic discussion of how a method widely used in applied statistics can be employed for approximate standard error and confidence interval evaluation of such functions. The…

In this paper, it is suggested that while there are a variety of frames or perspectives that guide research into learning science, a pre-paradigmatic field need not be a "free-for-all". Lakatos suggested that academic research fields were characterised by research programmes (RP), which offered heuristic guidance to researchers, and which…

There is often no simple or single way to interpret assessment results or to make instructional decisions based on results. Thus, This research found that classroom-based evaluation calls for a great deal of judgment, which can be enhanced if the logic of evaluation is understood. This consists of comparisons between observed or actual states of…

An assessment framework is like a blueprint, laying out the basic design of the assessment by describing the mathematics content that should be tested and the types of assessment questions that should be included. It also describes how the various design factors should be balanced across the assessment. This is an assessment framework, not a…

In participatory evaluations of K-12 programs, evaluators develop school faculty's and administrators' evaluation capacity by training them to conduct evaluation tasks and providing consultation while the tasks are conducted. A strong case can be made that the capacity building in these evaluations can be examined using a Vygotskian approach. We…

This evaluation research compares the first-grade competencies of two cohorts of Bangladesh children who attended "Succeed" preschools, with a control group who did not attend preschool. Testing of these groups occurred in 2006, 2007, and 2005, respectively. The Succeed program aims to improve children's learning and children's school…

Many psychology instructors present videotaped examples of behavior at least occasionally during their courses. However, few include video clips during examinations. We provide examples of video-based questions, offer guidelines for their use, and discuss their benefits and drawbacks. In addition, we provide empirical evidence to support the use…