For many years, the European evaluation community did not recognize evaluation standards as a relevant tool for quality assurance. References to the developments in the United States were exceptionally rare in the European evaluation literature during the 1970s and 1980s. One of the first articles on evaluation standards to appear in the European…

Evaluation standards can be useful not only as a framework for the design but as an assessment of particular evaluations. They can also serve as indicators for the developmental stage of evaluation practice in different areas or countries. Until recently, there has not been any large-scale and comprehensive empirical investigation of knowledge and…

It is generally thought that evaluation originated with the civil service exams that were administered in ancient China. However, modern evaluation and, of particular importance to this article, evaluation standards, originated in the United States. Why this occurred is part of a larger question about the development of social and educational…

During the Academy's transition Goffin discusses the ongoing processes of creating early childhood program standards; updating and developing performance criteria; developing and field-testing accreditation assessment instruments; and the program standards and accreditation criteria commission's deliberations about recommendations to the Board.…

This report focuses on two aspects of teacher supply and quality: (a) the under-representation of racial/ethnic minorities, especially African Americans in the teaching pool, and (b) teacher candidates' performance on licensure assessments, including general skills tests in reading, writing, and mathematics (known as Praxis I[R]) and selected…

Although becoming widespread, especially in view of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and without a universally-accepted definition, most discussions of standards-based reforms (SBR) include certain commonalities, including: (1) Academic expectations for students; (2) Alignment of key elements of the educational system to promote attainment of these…

This paper contributes to the debate over how the federal government can best help state and local authorities improve student achievement by providing examples from other countries of innovations in the role of the national government. The authors believe that the degree to which foreign policy structures parallel those of the United States are…

Education is the key to young people becoming full partners in shaping a global future and in shaping the nation's future. Quality basic education for young people is key to maintaining Alberta's standard of living and ensuring competitiveness in the world market. The education system must focus on what all students need to learn and be able to…

Policymakers and educators around the nation are wrestling with an important challenge--how to raise expectations for high school achievement, while increasing relevance and engagement in learning to keep students in school. Career and technical education (CTE) is receiving renewed attention as a strategy for increasing school engagement and rigor…

The author has been invited to reply to this response to her article of December 2006 in this journal. This response can only be a summary of some of her findings and a reiteration, in very truncated form, of her arguments. She would refer any interested reader back to her original extended review of the PIRLS project as it was there that she lays…

This article addresses the perennial issue of the criteria by which qualitative research should be evaluated. At the present time, there is a sharp conflict between demands for explicit criteria, for example in order to serve systematic reviewing and evidence-based practice, and arguments on the part of some qualitative researchers that such…

The authors provide a reference on how to set standards on tests in education, licensure, and certification. This book is comprehensive in scope, practical in nature, and definitive in terms of cataloguing the essential conceptual and procedural fundamentals of setting performance standards. It: (1) Offers a detailed description of procedures; (2)…

When one wants to set data reliability standards for a class of scientific inquiries or when one needs to compare and select among many different kinds of data with reliabilities that are crucial to a particular research undertaking, then one needs a single reliability coefficient that is adaptable to all or most situations. Work toward this goal…

Using meta-analysis, this research takes a look at studies included in a meta-analysis by R. Jaeger (1989) that compared the cut score set by one standard setting method with that set by another. This meta-analysis looks beyond Jaeger's studies to select 10 from the research literature. Each compared at least two types of standard setting method.…

This paper examines the role that standard-setting plays in the adoption and growth of new technologies, particularly in the development of electronic media. Background on technological standardization is provided in the first section, including discussions of the costs and benefits of standardization and the timing of standards setting. The…