A project to increase group decision making at a Wyoming secondary school is described in this practicum report. The intervention was designed to improve the group decision-making skills of members of the faculty advisory council and of department chairs. A skill development model based on training, practicing, monitoring, receiving feedback, and…

Findings from a study to explore organizational alternatives available to states for overseeing educational reform are presented in this paper. The structures and uses of eight exemplary state accountability mechanisms were analyzed. Seven of these mechanisms have already been implemented in South Carolina, Connecticut, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia,…

The Project on Secondary Analysis directed its attention to methodology and policy issues, focusing on reanalysis of existing data (1979-82)--surveys, program evaluations, etc.--as a vehicle for learning how to improve methods of obtaining and analyzing data, designing program evaluations, and constructing policy to enhance the quality and utility…

This workbook is designed for administrators with project responsibilities that are to be evaluated. The purpose is to help the administrator understand the factors that can affect evaluation use and organize for the evaluation to maximize the potential use of the information the evaluation produces. Four phases of organizing an evaluation to…

This handbook on organizing for evaluation use is oriented to those who commission or are administratively responsible for seeing that evaluations are performed. It is practical, clarifying the administrator's role in the evaluation process and providing worksheets for practice. Written with a minimum of technical language, it is useful for…

The phrase "systemic evaluation" denotes the idea of a comprehensive information system for schools and districts that provides an in-depth quantitative and qualitative description of schooling and facilitates dialogue, judgment, decision-making, and action by those concerned with and/or responsible for schooling. Attention is on the…

The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions held by teachers, principals (and other evaluators), and superintendents regarding current practices in teacher performance evaluation. A second purpose was to collect demographic data relating to current teacher evaluation practices. Two survey instruments were used to collect data. One…

Two of the most important functions that take place in school districts are staff development and staff evaluation. The relationship between these two functions, however, is more than two separate entities with some common administrative activities. Although it is conceivable that one of these functions is driven or motivated by the other, a…

Educational research and evaluation have had less impact on policy and decision making in education than hoped for, since research and evaluation represent fundamentally different kinds of endeavor than policy and decision making do. Evaluation has more impact than research because it is a more administrative activity and is more integral to…

Linking Outcomes to Organizational Planning (LOOP) was initiated during the 1984-85 school year in the Austin (Texas) Independent School District. LOOP was designed to ensure that evaluation, research, and informal findings became part of the instructional planning loop; to provide information to the Superintendent on progress toward priorities…

The use of evaluation information in a large state agency was investigated through a case study approach. Utilization was measured through a scaling procedure considering the status of recommendations within a report and the extent of influence of the evaluation of the status. The scaling procedure, the equal-appearing interval method, used…

The evaluation of a school improvement program for elementary schools (School Effectiveness Training) and for secondary schools (Secondary School Development Program) provided an opportunity to determine if user participation could increase knowledge use. It was hypothesized that program staff participation might be a solution to the dilemma of…

The focus of this study was on the visual analysis of time series data for evaluating educational programs. Two characteristics of the data--changes in slope and variability--and two characteristics of evaluation--training in data utilization and the use of aimlines/decision rules--were manipulated. A total of 51 students and/or teachers in…

Recent commission and task force reports calling for significant improvements in American education are considered in this set of three papers, and methods for implementing the recommendations are suggested. In his paper, Glen Harvey reviews the reports, noting the extent to which they fail to consider change implementation research and commenting…

In 1988, the Department of Educational Leadership at Western Kentucky University (WKU) established the Western Kentucky Assessment Center, sponsored by the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP). This document provides an overview of the history and methods of NASSP assessment centers, followed by a discussion of costs to…