A reading supplement to provide background material for "A Handbook on Evaluation for Title IV Indian Education Projects", this document describes and defines the following: (1) needs assessment (definition and purpose; relation of needs to Indian Education Act; approaches; surveying--population sampling, kinds of questions, etc.; group meeting approach; Delphi Technique; panel review; records and archival data; recent trends in needs assessment; and analysis and use); (2) financial evaluation (financial information; financial information and the Indian Education Act; identifying financial information needs--review of project plan, objectives, selected cost accounting, evaluation procedures, etc.; selecting data to be collected--levels of information requirements, availability of data, etc.; and collecting and processing data); (3) the use of tests in program evaluation (criteria; specialized test vocabulary; norm-referenced vs criterion referenced tests; major steps involved in the use of tests--select, review, modify, etc.); (4) curriculum evaluation (basic conceptualizations; special projects; models; basic procedures--project description, descriptive methodologies, charting techniques, information requirements, etc.); (5) personnel evaluation and in-service training (teacher performance and attitudes; evaluation of administrator training; means of assessing performance in-service training sessions). (JC)