Although experiential education is really the oldest approach to learning, its practitioners have not had an easy time justifying its relevance in the modern educational world. Recent changes in the methodologies of evaluation have provided useful tools for experiential educators. Such tools can be used to refine programming, enhance student…

Leaders in the field of enrichment programs for young children and their families often have difficulty when considering the nature and utility of evaluations of such programs. Decisions as to how much evaluation to do, how to choose instruments, and how to train testers, observers, and interviewers become crucial for establishing not only the…

This paper examines how a merit-pay award may lead to employer liability under the following types of laws: constitutional (federal and state); federal and state statutory law; and the common or case law handed down by the federal and state court judges. First, several court decisions are presented to indicate the status of the law as it is likely…

Each year when the Educational Testing Services releases state average SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) scores of high school students, Indiana officials are asked why Indiana ranks so low and what's being done to improve it. Leaders reply that scores are lower because more students take the test than in states with higher scores. This report…

This book is an updated account of the present use and status of performance indicators in British higher education set against the developing literature and experience of performance indicators in the United States and other countries and in view of the major shifts in higher education policy occurring in recent years. Chapter One explores key…

This paper examines the issues arising when a set of federally funded model demonstration projects, the secondary curricula/student transition projects of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, were obligated by federal initiative to improve the amount, quality, and use of evaluation. These issues included: (1) the nature of…

The chapters in this book address four major concerns in the field of curriculum evaluation. The first chapter focuses on the formative evaluation of educational programs, concentrating on the link between program development and formative evaluation. The second chapter--"Evaluating Curriculum Implementation"--presents a classification scheme for…

The Teacher Assessment Program (TAP) presents alternative modes of teacher evaluation to inform the deliberations of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). Three experimental methods of assessment--simulation exercise, portfolios, and simulation-based portfolios--were implemented by various groups of teachers. Practical…

What many educators see as the assistance of a program evaluation is often an intrusion into the governance of the program being evaluated. Redistribution of authority and control occur not only because evaluation findings support one constituency more than another, but the very act of evaluating affords protective status to the initiators of the…

This handbook outlines a 10-stage approach to conducting evaluations of development education programs. The introducation addresses concerns of the development education community, including the need for a defensible concept of evaluation and for evaluation guidelines for nonprofessional evaluators. Stage 1, "Identifying the…

Recent studies of the perceptions of teachers and supervisors about the benefits of teacher supervision show clear disagreement between the two groups. Supervisors see their efforts as helpful to teachers, whereas teachers consider supervision ineffectual. This document reports on research conducted to test the theory that positive…

Quantitative assessment instruments have been developed to identify those skills or behaviors which individuals with developmental disabilities need in order to become competitively employed, and to measure individuals' progress in the program and hence measure program effectiveness. Such assessment instruments are problematic, as each employment…

Facing the problem of a wide discrepancy in grading standards for student essays, the English department at a Texas community college developed a standardized method of grading students' expository and persuasive essays. The department established a committee of 10 full-time instructors whose objective was to standardize grading for all required…

Many of the recent appeals for educational improvement place great reliance on standardized tests as instruments of reform. The appropriateness and interpretation of these tests remain unresolved issues. Concepts of cognitive psychology should be integrated into the development of intelligence and achievement tests. (Author/VM)

Discusses the problems of lecturers and students in a college course. Describes a staff-student liason committee. Gives examples of lecture evaluation instruments. Analyzes the effectiveness of the staff-student liaison groups and emphasizes the value of communication. (CW)