The potential uses of ethnography and aesthetic criticism as sources for developing a qualitative approach to evaluating classrooms are delineated. Such work involves three interrelated processes--description, interpretation, and appraisal--which are discussed and exemplified. When describing a classroom, the evaluator vividly renders it, recreating it for others, and points out its pervasive quality. Interpretation consists of discussing the social meaning of classroom events, analyzing a classroom into its constituent parts and resynthesizing them to form a whole, and relating classroom events to external considerations. Appraisal entails weighing whether (and on what grounds) a particular lesson or practice is worthwhile and whether the lesson or practice was executed well. These three processes necessitate the researcher's drawing upon many ideas from education, sociology, philosophy, psychology, and so forth. Additionally, consideration is given to qualifications of an educational evaluator using qualitative methods--a broad understanding of classrooms, an ability to observe classrooms sensitivity, and the ability to transmit the experience to others. (Author/RC)