Diagnosis of pervasive developmental disorders relies on the detection of deficits in social, play, and communication skills relative to the child's mental age. A case example illustrates the multidisciplinary process of making the diagnosis in very young children. Psychiatric evaluation criteria are examined, and a developmental framework for…

Reports on the assessment of 636 children who were identified in a 1984 Scottish low birth weight study. Discusses adaptations of standardized tests that made it possible to test 27 children who had been judged as impossible to test because of developmental disabilities. (CFR)

A collegial model of teacher evaluation in which peer teachers engage in examining goals and their achievement is proposed to replace the traditional deficit model of teacher evaluation in which principals judge teachers' faults. Implementation of a collegial model will be time consuming but ultimately worthwhile. (SLD)

Two perspectives on assessment for teacher certification are described: the competency orientation, and the professional orientation. These perspectives are used to discuss current problems, basically validity issues, in teacher assessment: (1) a professional orientation toward assessment; (2) criterion-referenced assessments; and (3) the unit of…

Reflects on Head Start's beginnings, its goal of enhancing children's social competence, and errors associated with the incorporation of evaluation measures and curricula that are cognitive in orientation into its programs. Concludes that such errors must not recur. Evaluation measures and curricula must reflect concern for the child's whole…

This case study describes an unsuccessful research proposal submitted in response to a request for applications for projects to implement and evaluate up to 18 innovative programs for homeless persons with alcohol or other drug problems. This unsuccessful proposal reflects several tensions inherent in evaluation research. (SLD)

Contends that the methods used to measure literacy development of young British children lag behind understanding of how that literacy develops. Argues for new measures to assess children's early literacy, including their ways of responding to environmental print, sharing books and stories, and early writing. Discusses the placement of assessment…

Assesses, using the Urban Development Action Grant as a case study, why the evaluation of American urban economic initiatives has declined. The authors conclude that this decline occurred because of such evaluation's perceived lack of utility for policymakers and ineffectiveness in actually informing either policy or practice. The problems…

The extent to which the Joint Committee "Standards" for evaluation might be used to develop culturally relevant standards for use in other countries and how they might be modified for use in cross-cultural settings were explored using Malta and India as examples. Substantial modifications are probably necessary. (SLD)

This paper examines the content of The California Critical Thinking Skills Test (1990). This report is not a statistical review. Instead it brings under scrutiny the content of the exam. This content will be of interest to the general reader, because the issues range from logic to ethics to pedagogy, and to questions of evidential and…

This article presents the author's critique of Anthony F. J. van Raan's article titled, "Measurement of Central Aspects of Scientific Research: Performance, Interdisciplinarity, Structure." van Raan makes an excellent case for using bibliometric data to measure some central aspects of scientific research and to construct indicators of…

This article presents the author's critique of "Measurement of Central Aspects of Scientific Research: Performance, Interdisciplinarity, Structure," by Anthony F. J. van Raan. The author states that van Raan's article provides an excellent, if tightly compressed, introduction to key findings and innovative methods of the accumulating and…

This paper, drawing on work with three integrated early years centres, designated as centres of excellence in the north of England, addresses issues arising from the evaluation of a government initiative in funding models of integrated services and good educare practice. Issues concerned with evaluation work and the difficulties in investigating…

In this article, two problems associated with the expectation that teachers use contemporary assessment techniques are examined. The first problem relates to teachers' sense-making of assessment data. Illustrative cases revealed that teachers' processes of interpretation of students' understanding, knowledge and learning of mathematics draws on a…

A Friedman Foundation report attempts to find empirical support for the contention that competition from private schools, through voucher programs, improves the effectiveness of public schools. In the first year of Ohio's new EdChoice voucher program, the report claims to have found substantial academic gains at public schools exposed to the…