In this account of the drafting of the Evaluation Research Society (ERS) Standards, the author notes that the committee was concerned not only with a broad range of evaluation applications, but also with different forms of evaluation. The absence of specificity in the standards reflects the committee's steering between opposing views. (Author/LC)

Presents the Quality Reading Program Questionnaire, which has been used in more than 100 school districts to evaluate or improve existing reading programs. (Author/WD)

This article focuses on the management of federally funded evaluation research by (1) discussing aspects of building an in-house evaluation team; (2) defining possible contractor/client relationships, and (3) considering contractor/practitioner team rapport. (Author/GK)

Questions of who attends retirement preparation programs and how to evaluate the effectiveness of employer-sponsored retirement programs are addressed here. Those who have completed a program were observed to have accomplished more general preparation activities and have more favorable attitudes toward retirement than nonparticipants. (Author/CT)

The article provides, in outline form, a program evaluation plan for special education program developers and evaluators. The plan has a three part conceptual framework involving the nature and needs of students, the goals and objectives of the program, and the match between the two. (DB)

Considers evaluation in the context of conducting large professional development meetings. Its purposes are (1) to share an evaluation rationale along with a set of implementing techniques and (2) to review the value of regional (multistate) conferences. (JOW)

The variety of contexts, the politics of each situation, and the availability of resources all dictate variations in assessing outcomes. Seven major principles of program evaluation are considered, along with a cautionary note to the ambitious who expect large program effects. (Author)

A contingency model of evaluation competencies is presented concerning the types and levels of professional competency an evaluator should have. Four broad categories of competency (policy analysis, administrative, interpersonal/personal, and technical) are identified along with three different levels of criteria of acceptable performance.…

Offers a brief report on the National Assessment of Educational Progress conference on minimum competency testing. Among the reports was one asserting a logical relationship between student competency testing and teacher competency testing, and one noting that no research evidence shows that mandated student competency testing programs are…

The author proposes a role model for evaluators to be added to the numerous existing models. He presents the evaluator as an artist/painter/musician, suggesting that the evaluator's perception of an educational program's effectiveness can be expressed by a single "painting," rather than by a lengthy written report. (GDC)

Moss presents his reaction to Henry David's report on the Vocational Education Study (Journal of Vocational Education Research, Winter 1980) in the form of four questions about the interpretation, synthesis, and utilization of the study's findings. (SK)

The educational evaluation utilization of 47 Title IV-C projects in Minnesota funded in FYs 1975 and 1976 is examined. Findings suggest that these evaluations have had an impact, not only at the project level, but also in contributing to the validation of exemplary projects for wider dissemination. (RL)

The article points out the nature of resistance to evaluation in special education, discusses the implications inherent in the commitment to evaluation, and presents some of the complexities in the process of evaluation which account for why evaluations is sometimes perceived as hard to do. (Author)

A study designed to assess the ability of the Kurzweil reading machine (a speech reading device for the visually handicapped) to read three different type styles produced by five different means indicated that the machines tested had different error rates depending upon the means of producing the copy and upon the type style used. (Author/CL)

The article reviews basic behavioral program evaluation designs, and suggests how they might be effectively integrated into special education programs serving handicapped (and particularly learning disabled) children. It is concluded that the techniques of behavioral design, coupled with the essentials of teaching, enable the special education…