The High Level Seminar on Educational Achievement in Asia and the Pacific was organized in collaboration with the UNESCO Regional Office for Education in Asia and the Pacific (Bangkok, Thailand). The objectives were to exchange information and experiences on educational assessment at the primary and secondary school levels; to review major…

This manual, which is provided as a resource for Illinois School Districts and which incorporates some of the materials in the Alaska Department of Education's Assessment Handbook, is designed to meet the requirements of Public Act 84-126 and to help practitioners develop student assessment plans of local usefulness. Areas covered in the…

A common weakness characteristic of many instructional programs is that little advance planning is devoted to evaluation. The first stage of formulating and operationalizing an evaluation plan for the Iowa-Undergraduate Pre-Service Science Teacher Education Program (Iowa-UPSTEP) was to locate two external evaluators possessing experience and…

This collection of essays by current or former directors of institutional research represents the broad spectrum of size, function, and geography within institutional research in the two-year college. The volume contains: (1) "The Role of Institutional Research in Evaluation of Nontraditional Programs: College Preparatory Analysis at Miami-Dade…

An analytic procedure, efficiency analysis, is proposed for improving the utility of quantitative program evaluation for decision making. The three features of the procedure are explained: (1) for statistical control, it adopts and extends the regression-discontinuity design; (2) for statistical inferences, it de-emphasizes hypothesis testing in…

This proposal is predicated on the assumption that in order to improve instruction, formative assistance must be conceptually separated from summative evaluation. Teacher improvement requires the involvement of other teachers, department chairs, students, parents, and administrators, whereas summative evaluation is separate from the growth process…

This is one of a series of reports based on an ongoing reality test of systemic evaluation for instructional decision making. This feasibility study is being carried out by the Center for the Study of Evaluation with the Laboratory in School and Community Relations at a suburban Los Angeles high school (called Site A). Viewing a school as a…

Factors associated with the use of program evaluation results are examined. Evaluation can serve a variety of educational management needs if (1) these needs are organized around a central concern, and if (2) stakeholders use evaluation information so that their decision making resolves the central concern. (GDC)

Graduate students simulated school board members making decisions about educational programs. Situation contexts within the program evaluation reports were varied by conflict, quality, and time. The quality of decisions affected support for program continuation. Interactions of conflict and quality affected need for more information and more time…

Describes Pasco County School District's development of a district-wide evaluation system that articulates library media specialist performance appraisal and building-level media program evaluation, relating both to uniform program purposes, missions, and goals. Program evaluation results utilizing this new system are discussed. Program evaluation…

The National Postsecondary Education Cooperative has sponsored two working groups on student outcomes, one exploring the issue from a policy perspective and the other, from a data perspective. This report presents the results of the data perspective case studies, discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the "state of the art" in student…

This document is comprised of the 1998 issues (issues 3 and 4 are combined) of a quarterly newsletter produced by the Harvard Family Research Project to share new ideas and experiences in evaluating systems reform and comprehensive child and family services. Regular columns include: "From the Director's Desk,""Theory and…

Many communities are trying to build sustainable societies, melding the wisdom of nature with culture, by undertaking various projects and initiatives. Although many projects may contribute to community sustainability, it is difficult to know which are most urgent or will be most effective. The purpose of this document is to introduce the concept…

The amount of literature on program evaluation decreased in 1996, continuing a trend begun in the late 1980s. One exception to this is the literature on assessment. Another frequent issue is the technique of evaluation. Many examples of research on evaluation are from international settings, where accountability and evaluation appear to be…

The history of the African people before slavery and colonization illustrates the ways in which different pictures of reality are created by which data are selected and ignored. The model of inquiry that verifies historical accuracy can help all program evaluators provide greater truth and equity for their clients. (SLD)