This report summarizes the problems schools are encountering as they try to use data to gauge the effectiveness of standards-based education, accountability efforts, and school reform. It provides an overview of the education market, discusses the strengths and weaknesses of available software, and describes systems used by 19 states. The article…

This study was conducted to see if evaluative feedback from students that includes reference values (students' expectations on teaching quality) has an effect on acceptance by teachers and relevance for them. Also examined was the degree to which teachers' goal setting is influenced by feedback of student ratings with or without reference values.…

Given the competition for limited resources at all levels of funding for correctional education coupled with public sentiment that swings between punishment of offenders and their rehabilitation, correctional education data at the program level have become more important than ever. This handbook explores the use of data in correctional education…

Strategic planning, accountability, and restructuring efforts often exacerbate targeted problems because the accurate information required for success is unavailable. This document offers a model monitoring system for utilizing important information by schools and districts. Part 1, "Basic Assumptions About Schools and Districts," explores how…

This paper presents the evolution of and the lessons learned from a research approach to assessment of student outcomes, specifically of student academic achievement, being used by the Puerto Rico Statewide Systemic Initiative (PR-SSI), which is one of the statewide systemic initiatives for science and mathematics sponsored by the National Science…

Deliberately involving urban education stakeholders in the Cities-in-Schools evaluation study improved the utility of the findings for formative evaluation stakeholders but not for summative evaluation stakeholders. (Author/PN)

Stakeholder evaluation was designed to address widely recognized problems in the conduct of evaluation. However, global propositions about the problems and prospects of program evaluation obscure the circumstances in which social science can contribute to social problem solving. (Author/PN)

Recommendations are made to Congress and the Department of Education on evaluation of federally supported education programs. The work covers local, state, and federal efforts to address questions about evaluation procedures and practices, and the use of evaluation results. The recommendations are directed toward improving the quality and…

Describes a program evaluation measure for assessing college student development intervention outcomes. Outlines the management, student-centered, and implementation approaches of the measure and examines the model's application in student development. Uses two case examples in which the model is applied to student services assessment projects to…

Highlights several articles that raise questions about the role of research in educational reform. These articles argue over the use of National Assessment of Educational Progress results for accountability purposes; and the advisability of using cost-benefit analysis in critiquing educational reform proposals, and particularly, in evaluating the…

The implementation of a collaborative approach to evaluating family literacy programs was studied using a conceptual framework and applied to 36 family literacy programs from a midwestern state. Evaluation participants learned how results could be used to develop curriculum in addition to reporting to funding agencies. (SLD)

Discusses the need for systems of performance indicators (PI) to measure important aspects of university operations. Comparison of three models--production, student development, and systems--makes clear that model choice yields fundamentally different PI systems and, in turn, different contexts of relevance. Suggests a hybrid model, combining the…

Discussion of library media specialists evaluation focuses on factors that compromise the utility of evaluations by the principal: increased demands on principals as instruments of accountability; the tendency to use an evaluation designed for teachers, not media specialists; and changes that have occurred in the work of library media specialists.…

A sampling of student assessment and accountability in selected countries to help put trends in the United States in perspective. Examines national student assessments in England, France, and Hong Kong. Also looks at several international collaborative assessment projects for reading literacy, mathematics, and science. (Contains 10 references.)…

This sourcebook presents information about three types of federal decision makers who are frequent clients of evaluation: career government executives; political appointees; and congressional staff members. Differences among these decision makers are highlighted in seven articles, with emphasis on meeting client needs and process dimensions of…