State assessment directors and State science supervisors discussed alternative methods for assessing student learning in science at a conference. The conference had two objectives: (1) to increase the knowledge of state science supervisors and assessment directors of recent experience at international, national, and state levels with alternative…

Comparison of student test scores between states, school districts, and even schools continues to be a popular measure of student achievement. However, these comparisons reveal little about the quality or effectiveness of educational programs, only the varying difficulty of educating different populations of students. This report uses U.S. Census…

This manual is intended for managers of training and institutional development programs. Its objective is to provide clear and practical advice for those who conduct impact evaluations. Impact evaluation is distinguished from other types of evaluation by the area of the program on which it focuses, the assessment of the extent to which a program…

In 1985 the Georgia General Assembly passed the Quality Basic Education Act, recognizing needs in key areas such as provision of an equitable finance structure and staff development programs. A section of the act addresses planning and evaluation, mandating activities and requirements including a comprehensive evaluation of each public school,…

Determining the limits of accountability and how schools should be assessed is one of the most difficult problems in education. The state of Texas has attempted accountability by rewarding some schools and punishing others without justification. The school superintendents of Bexar County (Texas) and the Center for Educational Leadership at Trinity…

In November 1984, the Rand Corporation was asked by the Annenberg/Corporation for Public Broadcasting (A/CPB) Project to conduct a study during the spring 1985 school semester on the feasibility of evaluating student outcomes from A/CPB telecourses. This report documents the findings of that study, which had three goals: (1) to examine alternative…

Evaluation as a political arbitration entity is discussed in the case of a multilateral literacy development project in the fourth year of operation in a Third World country. An external evaluation team was invited to evaluate the project when conflict appeared between the funding agency (A) and the technical agency (B) over a project-related…

The problems and usefulness of an evaluation plan used to evaluate the adult day care services at Parkside Human Services Corporation are examined in this report. After the initial agreed upon objectives of the evaluation are given, the basic problem of disagreement between practitioner and researcher on operation of the program during the…

Procedures and rationales for teacher appraisal are examined. The target-output model calls for agreed-upon objectives to be compared with professional work. The performance criteria model compares professional work to agreed criteria of competencies. A diagnostic model of appraisal of teacher needs and potentials is joined with the others in a…

This paper acknowledges that research on school dropouts presents problems in the definitions and computation of dropout indices. It considers a variety of methods for computing dropout rates, using dropout rates which are real and which were available at the end of the 1986-1987 school year. Fall enrollment, average daily membership, and total…

A total of 1,487 eleventh grade students from the Hamburg (West Germany) school system were asked to complete four writing assignments used in an International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) study of writing assessment. In analyzing the writing samples, the study focused on: (1) between-rater effects; (2)…

Since the measurement of school achievement involves the administration of achievement tests to various grades on various subjects, both grade level and subject matter contribute to within-school achievement variations. To determine whether achievement test scores vary most among different fields within a grade level, or within fields among…

Describes the characteristics of a statewide principal evaluation system. Even when an evaluation system is detailed, specific, and statewide, inconsistencies develop because of the special nature of principals' work. The system breaks down in the sampling of performance and outputs, and in the communication of negative feedback. (PS)

The focus of this article is on the contextual nature of structure and its influence on organizational assessment and learning. Assessment mechanisms are part of the organization's learning system, whereby it reflects on its actions and alters its notions of how the internal and external world work. (Author/LMO)

Outlines influences on evaluation: demand for more highly skilled graduates, reduced availability of public funds, mixed educational concerns, gap between evaluation knowledge and practice, simplicity/complexity dilemma. Proposes categorization of types/levels of evaluation: basic research, program evaluation, student learning assessments, process…