Outlines criteria for evaluating professional continuing education courses: standard of higher education, justification for training supply, compliance with objectives, high quality of instructors, transparency of the educational process, functional practical arrangements, appropriate instructional arrangements, adequacy of quality assurance…

Discusses the application of objective evaluation criteria to training programs. Suggests evaluating a presentation by asking: What is the speaker's goal? Does the delivery achieve it? What information is superfluous? What information undermines the goal? and What tactics are being used to engage listeners? (JOW)

Evaluates the relative merits of approaches to measuring corporate and competitive performance: financial, stakeholder, admiration, reputation, and corporate logic models. Promotes a holistic framework for selecting appropriate measures that considers strategic success in terms of values, environment, and resources. (SK)

The adequacy of "rule of thumb" conventional cutoff criteria and several alternatives for fit indices in covariance structure analysis was evaluated through simulation. Analyses suggest that, for all recommended fit indexes except one, a cutoff criterion greater than (or sometimes smaller than) the conventional rule of thumb is required…

Uses several thought experiments to explore the potential impact of the choice of criterion on the results of examinee-centered studies. Conclusions from these experiments are then used to examine the different cutting scores from several contrasting groups studies on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. (SLD)

A survey of 15 automobile salespeople indicated that job satisfaction increased when performance appraisals provided clear criteria that met workers' approval and when appraisals were fair and used to determine rewards. (Contains 61 references.) (SK)

Studied whether circular equating could provide an adequate measure of various types of equating error when applied to different equating methods under different equating designs. Analyses and simluations show that circular equating is generally invalid as a criterion to evaluate the adequacy of equating. (SLD)

This study indicates that most pharmacy programs utilize academic and nonacademic admission information sources and that they feel they are meeting the adopted American Council of Pharmaceutical Education Guideline 16.3 which requires that pharmacy programs use other than academic information sources in the admission process. (Author/JM)

Explores why, although Golden Key has gained a large membership, many other honor societies question its mission. Its founder has been ousted amid charges of lax standards and improper encounters with students. (EV)

In 1988, the Labour Government abolished Grant Maintained schools and introduced three new categories of school: community, voluntary, and foundation. Reports findings of a study that gathered the perceptions of heads, governors, and senior staff about admission issues in 11 foundation schools after their first full term. (26 references)…

Results of 2 studies involving 503 adults and 229 adolescents show that emotional intelligence, as measured by the Multifactor Emotional Intelligence Scale, a new ability test of emotional intelligence, meets 3 classical criteria of a standard intelligence. (SLD)

Discusses usability as an interface design concept to improve information retrieval on the World Wide Web. Highlights include criteria for a usable Web site; usability testing; usability resources on the Web; and a sidebar that gives an example of usability testing by Hewlett-Packard. (LRW)

Provides a checklist to help clinical nurses critique research in order to use findings in practice. Categories include purpose of study, statement of problem, literature review, methodology, results and conclusions, and overall concerns (objectivity, ethics, readability). (SK)

Describes recent improvements in the Chicago Public Library's performance evaluation system that has made it more participative and effective. Discusses three areas of change: broadening the range and improving the relevance of the appraisal criteria; increasing the number of rating criteria; and requiring narrative commentaries on employee…

This article offers a number of statistics and performance measures that libraries may find useful in determining the overall quality of their network-based services; identifies a number of service quality criteria; and provides a framework to assist librarians in selecting statistics and performance measures based on service quality criteria.…