The National Advisory Council on Education Professions Development has been reviewing some of the major evaluations and evaluation research in the period 1966 to date, seeking to identify the salient issues concerning the evaluation of educational endeavors. This document is a preliminary statement of the findings and recommendations. The interest in assessing effectiveness is not confined to education. The following developments show the important role assigned to evaluation of federal activities generally: a) increasingly, in new legislation enacted and in amendments to existing statutes, explicit provision for evaluation has been made; b) the executive branch's emphasis on "cost-effectiveness" assumes the capacity on the part of the agencies to carry out appropriate and effective evaluation; c) there has been a very substantial increase in the funds allotted for evaluation in the executive branch. The importance that has been assigned to evaluation, and the influence that such studies have exerted to date, prompts a question that must receive serious consideration: Is "evaluation," as an aspect of social science research, capable of responding adequately to the extraordinary demands placed upon it by the developments cited above? The council will continue to investigate this question, but it has concluded that there is a need for a full-scale examination of the evaluation procedures of federal programs in education. (JA)