Sources of confusion about the distinction between process and product measurement are identified, and the effect of the distinction on evaluation quality is shown. Process measurement involves the measure of behavior, performance of a task which generates no products, an independent variable or treatment, use in diagnosing performance, and means.…

Research on change processes is needed to help explain how psychotherapy produces change. To explain processes of change, it is important to measure three types of outcomes and three levels of process. Emphasis will need to be placed on specifying different types of in-session change episodes and the intermediate outcomes they produce. (Author/BL)

Discusses how technical communicators can measure performance, productivity, and quality goals. Discusses developing a daily management system of measures for technical communication, notes other possible measures, and discusses criteria and prediction. (SR)

Both spatial theories of voting and our intuitions lead us to expect that political parties' ideological positions should affect individuals' turnout decisions. Contrary to these expectations, existing research finds that neither feelings of alienation--that no party adequately represents an individual's ideological position--nor…

According to a new study of Milwaukee public schools, student achievement has benefited from voucher-based school competition. A novel method, using geocoding, was proposed for measuring the degree of competition within the city of Milwaukee and, in turn, for determining whether such competition has increased or decreased the achievement of public…

Using "error bars" on graphs is a good way to help students see that, within the inherent uncertainty of the measurements due to the instruments used for measurement, the data points do, in fact, lie along the line that represents the linear relationship. In this article, the author explains why connecting the dots on graphs of collected data is…

Offering a primer on action research methodologies and examples of practice, "Students in Transition: Research and Practice in Career Development" responds to a dual challenge facing career development educators--designing cutting-edge career development interventions and demonstrating their effectiveness. Overviews of quantitative and qualitative…

In this paper the National Assessment of citizenship's objectives, procedures, exercises, and findings are considered as a source of implications for further research in the area of social studies. First, the methodology of National Assessment can be used as a model for developing objectives, and for devising exercises to measure attainment of…

This report is the first volume of a projected series of "General Information Yearbooks" to be updated and published annually by the National Assessment of Educational Progress and is designed to aid the readers of the National Assessment's reports to understand the philosophies and goals of the project, its methods for developing…

A project designed to determine the relevance of existing standardized achievement tests to the goals of individualized instruction is among the ongoing research activities of Project PLAN, a computer-supported individualized education program. Standardized achievement tests (including the Metropolitan Readiness Test, the Scholastic Aptitude…

A survey of the purposes of measurement, abuses of measurement, and barriers to evaluation. (Author)

Discusses the problem of assigning subjects to one of several treatments based on their test scores. The success of each treatment is measured by different criterion. (RB)