Chelimsky, former head of the Program Evaluation and Methodology Division of the General Accounting Office, suggested that advocacy by evaluators destroys their credibility. Evaluators should, this author argues, be advocates for democracy and the public interest, with the question being how explicitly and how defensibly. (SLD)

Discusses performance improvement interventions, including training, and the need for evaluation to measure training effectiveness. Reviews six evaluation perspectives of corporate training programs and recommends four areas for further study, including overall evaluation models and appropriate uses of the results of evaluations. (Contains 63…

Critically examines five issues surrounding the use of student evaluations of teaching for summative decisions: current practices, validity concerns, improving the reporting of results, improving the decision-making process, and incorporating validity estimates into the decision-making process. Concludes with a list of recommendations for…

Responds to Abrami's proposals in "Improving Judgments about Teaching Effectiveness Using Teacher Rating Forms." Draws from comments made by members of an American Education Research Association special interest group and offers a personal perspective. (EV)

Preceding articles in this issue, "Improving Judgments about Teaching Effectiveness Using Teacher Rating Forms" (Abrami) and "Can We Put Precision into Practices? Commentary and Thoughts Engendered by Abrami's 'Improving Judgments about Teacher Effectiveness Using Teacher Rating Forms,'" offered: (1) Abrami's proposals to…

Explores teaching evaluations with a emphasis on student evaluations of teaching effectiveness (SETEs). Discusses the role of SETEs in the scholarship of teaching; addresses their two primary uses, highlighting the difference between global and specific items contained within most instruments; briefly addresses the research on their accuracy;…

Focuses on the ideal future of evaluation as a discipline, including evaluation in the nonacademic world and evaluation as it applies to elementary, secondary, and higher education. In the ideal future, evaluation will be fully accepted as a key discipline and will be fully used in rational discourse and policy decisions. (SLD)

Explores the negative reputation of evaluation outside the evaluation profession, considering evaluator credibility, evaluation costs, undesirable consequences of evaluation, and the frequent doubts about evaluation in the academic community. To improve both reputation and practice, evaluation must become known as a helping profession. Evaluators…

Presents a vision of evaluation that addresses the integration of intellectual and emotional dimensions. These points of integration are discussed: (1) building relationships of trust with pluralistic communities; (2) considering implications for the theory underlying framing evaluation problems; (3) designing interventions; (4) developing…

Describes a "world" of evaluation in 2010 in which evaluation recognizes and celebrates national and regional differences and contributions. In 2010, the whole world should be doing evaluations, and the evaluations should be of situations that cannot be described by dichotomous (full or empty) answers. Through better information and an increased…

The five chapters of this special issue provide insights into how Scandinavians understand evaluation practice. Although there is no "Scandinavian" perspective on evaluation, theory and practice in the Scandinavian countries unfold against sociocultural and intellectual influences that differ from those of the United States. (SLD)

This case study of one middle school focuses on improving teachers' skills in data-driven decision making through analysis of student work and their own professional practice. The expectation that schools will make adequate yearly progress has pushed evaluation practice down to the teacher level, where teachers are asked to analyze and…

This paper examines the current academic and policy literatures concerning school evaluation in primary and secondary education within the OECD countries. First, it provides a typology of the existing systems of school evaluation across the OECD. It encompasses the diverse criteria and instruments commonly used to carry out schools evaluation, as…

"Classroom Assessment in Action" clarifies the multi-faceted roles of measurement and assessment and their applications in a classroom setting. Comprehensive in scope, Shermis and Di Vesta explain basic measurement concepts and show students how to interpret the results of standardized tests. From these basic concepts, the authors then…

Evaluation Voices is an approach to evaluation that assumes that programs with similar goals can strengthen their evaluation strategies through cluster networking as they build evaluation expertise from within. Evaluators focus on a process that: (1) begins with program staff and stakeholders sharing their vision for the program; (2) recognizes…