This book looks at the problems of teacher assessment strategies. Focussing on the experience of four school districts that are addressing typical obstacles to initiating significant evaluation efforts, the authors identify the organizational prerequisites and strategies that enable schools to begin and carry out meaningful teacher evaluation…

This document reports an evaluation of the orientation program in Australia for hosted Year Program students. Qualitative and quantitative data were used in the evaluation. The techniques included on-site observation of the orientation and interviews with 141 participants and 23 staff members from 12 countries. Although no written goals were…

Rather than automatically presuming explicit conditions exist when designing an evaluation to fit the summative or formative mold, evaluators should think of an evaluation design as fitting between endpoints on an evaluation process continuum. Evaluators can blend techniques from both the formative and summative evaluation, matching actual program…

Marking strategies used in the Danish school system from the compulsory Folkeskole level through higher education are described, with emphasis on "the 13-Scale." Problems, impacts, recent developments, and trends in marking strategies and the communication of their meaning are discussed. (BS)

Two studies used experimental data to evaluate nonexperimental methods of program evaluation for employment and training programs. Results of both studies indicated that the nonexperimental methods might not accurately replicate the experimental estimates. Also, new methods for constructing comparison groups yielded little improvement over…

First presents a framework for understanding the dynamics of organizational life (within a child care center). Then presents a rationale for regularly assessing work attitudes about the organizational climate. Finally, provides recommendations for undertaking climate assessments in a systematic way. (BB)

A between method triangulation strategy was used to evaluate a process for long-range program planning. One study team conducted interviews and the other used a mail questionnaire. The resulting problems in coordination between teams are discussed. (Author/GDC)

Investments in web-based training (WBT) have increased presumably to attain cost savings and performance improvement. However, it has been difficult to assess the cost of WBT. In order to conduct an accurate cost analysis of WBT, three primary issues remain as follows: 1) identifying the missing cost components of WBT, 2) assessing the costs of…

This handbook brings together contributions by scholars in the areas of psychometrics, assessment, and evaluation who have expertise in the application of testing and assessment in multicultural environments. The book provides a comprehensive view of various cultural issues and offers updated information pertaining to the usage of major…

This digest discusses the assessment of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Topics addressed include: (1) the purpose of an assessment of children who are deaf or hard of hearing; (2) problems associated with assessment, including the diagnostician's lack of experience with the deaf population, communication problems, tests that are normed…

Drawing on recent research in brain development, the public schools district in Daviess County, Kentucky, has developed a comprehensive program with the purpose of increasing students' capacity for learning and achievement. The program called Graduation 2010 was conceived by educators and members of the community during 1997. The eight components,…

Points out that early childhood development research is fraught with questions about researchers' ability to understand the mind of the child and the feasibility of true collaboration with children in the research process. Delineates common complications in the research process and summarizes responses to a survey of early childhood researchers…

Questions theoretical frameworks established by past research thought to explain the minority student college attrition rate. Finds the unexplained attrition (possibly influenced by unknown factors) of American Indian students to be 50 percent relative to the Anglo population, despite controls for differences other than ethnic origin. Indicates…

Studies processes in 49 Canadian K-13 classrooms to identify teachers' student achievement evaluation methods. Teacher interviews and categorization of their testing instruments showed teachers beyond early primary grades used evaluations mainly to generate marks for reporting purposes. Such reports seen as reaffirming existing judgments, rather…

Demonstrates that the common procedure of using examination results as performance indicators based upon residuals from regression analysis when applied to aggregated data gives unstable results. Suggests that aggregate-level analyses are uninformative and that useful comparisons cannot be obtained without employing multilevel analyses using…