Reflection on experiences in Brazil and elsewhere provides insight into the advisory process in international technical cooperation projects and alternative roles for evaluation advisors. (Author)

Along with assessing the value of a program, evaluations should aid in decision making, support change management, and improve processes. For an evaluation to effect change, three conditions should occur: informing, collaborating, and mixing. The evaluation of a Wheaton College (Massachusetts) graduation requirement that students complete a…

Both quality and representation are constructs that are central to evaluation as a form of human discourse. Quality is perhaps the most essential idea in evaluation, and once quality is discerned, it must be conveyed, or represented to others. These constructs are considered in the context of the Chicago, Illinois public schools, an urban system…

This new edition is the result of an extensive review of the standards as defined in 1981. Taken as a set, the 30 current standards provide a working philosophy for evaluation. They define the Joint Committee on Standards for Education Evaluation's conception of the principles that should guide and govern program evaluation efforts, and they offer…

Four functions of federal project officers in managing program evaluations with support from contract research firms are described: (1) articulating evaluation requirements; (2) providing for fairness in contract awards; (3) monitoring ongoing studies; and (4) transmitting evaluation results to decision makers. (Author/PN)

A brief history of Title I evaluation efforts in Chicago illustrates the concern that the evaluation of Title I programs must serve two masters: the federal reporting mandate and local needs. (PN)

Stakeholder-based studies modify the relationship between evaluator and user, producing conflict that can cause evaluators to regress to familiar, traditional patterns that leave interactive evaluation strategies only partially implemented. (Author/PN)

Discusses the actual uses to which achievement test scores are put in the college admissions process (according to survey findings) and factors that should be considered when treating test scores as admission criteria. (PGD)

Fostering self-determination is the defining focus of empowerment evaluation, but this type of evaluation overlaps participatory, collaborative, stakeholder-involving, and utilization-focused approaches to evaluation. It becomes critical to distinguish empowerment evaluation from other approaches as the field debates its boundaries and…

Two articles present differing points of view on the evaluation of the development of a teacher education program. "Through the Looking Glass..." describes what happens when an evaluator becomes the evaluation client, and "Degrees of Strangeness" reports on the evaluator's findings and opinions. (SLD)

This paper examines issues involved in conducting evaluations when participation by the target groups, typically minorities and disadvantaged groups, may put them in jeopardy. Argues that participation by target groups as cooperative partners throughout the evaluation is a way of addressing this dilemma. (SLD)

Management development programs should be considered a way to reenergize organizations. Their effectiveness should be measured by managers' intention to use new knowledge. Barriers to new actions should be minimized and the practice of new actions/skills reinforced so they become continuous and long term. (SK)

The Stereotypy Analysis, a means of analyzing environmental variables associated with differential rates of stereotypic behavior, was conducted with five adults with developmental disabilities. Results indicate the analysis was able to detect environmental events associated with stereotypic responding for three subjects and was useful in…

Discusses a study to determine the deficiencies in existing student evaluation instruments so that they could be avoided in a revision. Objectives were to determine a method for measuring instrument reliability, to suggest guidelines for development of an instrument, to describe a better method for evaluating bias, and to suggest prudent…

Six articles on the relationship between policy theory and the practice of policy evaluation are presented. Articles address basic theoretical issues, theories in practice, the epistemological foundations of decision technology, selection of policy analysis instrumentation, utilization of public policy analysis, and justifying policy arguments.…