This article offers an account of a doctoral insider research project that became problematic. The project was investigating mathematics teaching in a university in the UK, and by contrasting the research account with research diary entries pertaining to two interviewees, different interpretations of the interview data are evident. These…

Scientifically-based child assessment tools, observation, screening, portfolios, individualized research-based curriculum are now requirements for accreditation by the NAEYC. Head Start has set them as expectations in their performance standards. And increasingly, entities that fund early childhood programs are looking to the use of child…

This paper discusses an instructional approach designed to help preservice teachers understand how assessments can be influenced by personal biases. In order to achieve this objective, we developed an analogy-based activity called "The Dog Show Analogy." After participating in the activity, we have observed that the participating preservice…

Drug studies are often cited as the best exemplars of evaluation design. However, many of these studies are seriously biased in favor of positive findings for the drugs evaluated, even to the point where dangerous effects are hidden. In spite of using randomized designs and double blinding, drug companies have found ways of producing the results…

The Case of Top Beginnings and the Missing Child Outcomes is a fictionalized case study of a set of evaluation challenges faced in evaluating comprehensive initiatives that are seeking to build systems. In this case, the issue is a multistate foundation-funded early learning system building initiative that has to date primarily employed a case…

The development and implementation of the EQF, as a meta-framework for the promotion of transparency, quality assurance, mobility and mutual recognition of qualifications, has given rise to some difficulties. These are due partly to different definitions of competences, skills and knowledge. Taking the German-speaking countries as an example, the…

Throughout classrooms in the United States there appears to have been a general watering down of academic standards. The percentages of "A" and "B" grades have risen, and at some schools, the percentage of grades of "C" or lower has plummeted. Numerous scholarly articles about grade inflation discuss the extent,…

To validate a measure of a construct is to validate a theory: The process includes theory specification, theory elaboration, choice of methods, choice of research design, reliance on necessary auxiliary theories, and empirical observation. Evaluating the success of the process is likely to be enhanced through quantification. To date, scientists…

The state of teacher evaluation is a significantly and frequently neglected problem in public education, an enterprise that spends $400 billion annually on salaries and benefits. Because teacher evaluation is at the center of the quality of teaching in the nation's classrooms, it has the potential to be a powerful lever of teacher and school…

Discusses ethical challenges faced by evaluators, especially those who have gotten into problems while conducting the evaluation. Introduces the other articles in this theme section. (SLD)

Challenges the assumption that evaluation should aim for fostering deliberative democracy. A modest effort by an evaluator to contribute to deliberative democracy is defensible, but vigorous political advocacy violates social expectation. (Author/SLD)

Career development practitioners understand that the value of career and employment services extends beyond attachment to the labor market. However, "soft" outcomes such as increased self-efficacy and improved ability to manage transitions are difficult to measure. Convincing funders and policy makers of the significance of such outcomes…

This article considers potential impediments to the estimation of teacher quality caused primarily by the purposeful behavior of families, administrators, and teachers. The discussion highlights the benefits of accounting for student and school differences through a value-added modeling approach that incorporates a student's history of family,…

The assessment that occurs each day in the science classroom is often overlooked amidst calls for accountability in education and renewed debates about external testing. Research points to the positive influence that improved, ongoing classroom assessment can have on learning. Documents that offer visions for science education such as the National…

Outlines a scenario in which an evaluator wants to ask questions of teenagers that may pose ethical problems, or may be perceived as posing such problems. The hypothetical situation is the evaluation of a life skills program aimed at reducing the teen birth rate. (SLD)