The costs and benefits of recent statewide and nationwide educational assessment programs are examined. The purpose of this paper is to present and substantiate some critical lessons and observations concerning: how the costs and benefits of large-scale assessments (LSAs) can be appraised, and the utility of this type of research to policymakers…

Concerns about using portfolios (collections of student work showing student effort, progress, or achievement in one or more areas) in large-scale assessments are addressed. The products in a portfolio allow the reviewer to make inferences about the process of student learning. Hence, a portfolio should include information about the activities…

The urgent need to improve big city schools has been a powerful incentive to adopt accountability systems. The following types of accountability systems may exist alongside each other: (1) political; (2) legal; (3) bureaucratic; (4) professional; and (5) market. Bureaucratic accountability is a "top down" system that holds teachers…

The purpose of this document is to address issues related to the release of test scores to a variety of audiences: parents, school board members, school staff, the news media, and the general public. Guidelines or recommendations for reporting test data are provided. The recommendations are based both on experiences in reporting test results and…

The purpose of this report is to comment on practice in the use of existing data bases in program evaluation and school improvement and to explore directions of increased and improved use. The report's impetus is the role that existing data plays in current efforts in local school districts and the possibilities for the future. To a great extent,…

An investigation was made of current uses of formative and summative teacher evaluation. A review of the literature on teacher evaluation systems revealed that most systems attempted to accomplish two potentially conflicting purposes: to encourage teacher development and improve instructional quality (formative), and to judge teacher effectiveness…

The purpose of this document is to share various approaches used by federal agencies to assess needs and measure training effectiveness. The emphasis in the descriptions is on the evaluation process rather than on the results. One program was evaluated by employing return-on-investment (ROI) data and using volunteer line personnel who conducted…

A study involving a simple random sample of 180 county-level administrators employed by the U.S. Cooperative Extension Service assessed the effects of client and administrator involvement as stakeholders in evaluation. A posttest-only control group design was used. Variables included level of administrator involvement as stakeholders and level of…

This paper cites several examples of the outcomes assessment activities taking place on college campuses and their impact on the freshman educational experience. Outcomes assessment is viewed as the impetus for faculty to make responsive improvements in higher education practices. Improvements derived from assessment activities are being…

This paper reports the process by which Anne Arundel County Public Schools evaluated its mathematics program. The steps are outlined by which the evaluation was initiated, designed, implemented, and reported. The procedures developed to address and implement the evaluation findings and recommendations are described. The evaluation was intitiated…

Although scholars and policy analysts both value quality-controlled collections of research results, they evaluate research according to different criteria. Nevertheless, an examination of a pessimistic fictional research experience and a more productive actual experience indicate that, although differences in focus between scholars and policy…

Based on the philosophy that language is central to learning, this booklet defines common curriculum goals for elementary and secondary schools that combine both general, essential learning skills and the common knowledge and skills that form a strong English language arts curriculum. The guide has two main sections: the receptive section focuses…

Evaluation can serve a variety of educational management questions, but an administrator's ability to use evaluation as a management tool depends not only upon his or her own perception of evaluation but also on the perceptions of other potential evaluation users in the system. Research has uncovered a variety of factors influencing an…

The question of whether improvements in assessment data for students referred to special education would result in the increased use of these data and a better basis for teaching decisions was studied. Six versions of an assessment report were prepared for a hypothetical child: four with increasing detail and information, one with an integrated…

Examples of the difficulties that public school program evaluators can have in explaning perplexing results are provided. Arguments abound over the best way to report a finding that has multiple interpretations or presentation options, and the enigma of realizing that one way to report a finding is not the only way, or even necessarily the best…