Good evaluation requires that evaluation efforts themselves be evaluated. Many things can and often do go wrong in evaluation work. Accordingly, it is necessary to check evaluations for problems such as bias, technical error, administrative difficulties, and misuse. Such checks are needed both to improve ongoing evaluation activities and to assess…

Background: The Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Evaluation (IDPE) program at Western Michigan University (WMU) was designed and developed to address the increasing need and demand for highly trained and skilled evaluators. After only six and a half years, the program's graduates are serving in important evaluation leadership positions throughout the…

"Evaluation Theory, Models, and Applications" is designed for evaluators and students who need to develop a commanding knowledge of the evaluation field: its history, theory and standards, models and approaches, procedures, and inclusion of personnel as well as program evaluation. This important book shows how to choose from a growing…

Provides an overview of evaluation checklists and describes 10 checklists for program, personnel, and product evaluations that were developed to be available to evaluators through the World Wide Web. (SLD)

This article reviews experiences in the United States over the past 15 years in developing standards to guide and assess the work of professional evaluators. It introduces the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation's "Program Evaluation Standards" and overviews the Committee's project to develop "Educational…

On behalf of the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation, the author reviews the Committee's recent efforts and discusses the needs for further work related to the "Standards for Evaluations of Educational Programs, Projects, and Materials." The Committee has developed a program to guide its work. The program addresses…

The aim of this paper is to present a logical structure for the evaluation of evaluation (meta-evaluation) and to suggest ways of conducting such evaluations. Part I contains an analysis of background factors and problems associated with meta-evaluation--that is, the evaluation of evaluation. This part discusses the need for meta-evaluation and…

Draws lessons in contracting for evaluations from the 1995 evaluation of a U.S. Marine Corps personnel evaluation system and a 1991 evaluation of the procedures for setting cutting scores of the National Assessment Governing Board of the National Assessment of Educational Progress. These national, politically sensitive evaluations provide lessons…

Thirty specific standards developed as guiding principles to maintain the utility, feasibility, propriety and accuracy of evaluations in educational programs, projects and materials are presented. Utility Standards include Audience Identification, Evaluator Credibility, Information Scope and Selection, Valuational Interpretation, Report Clarity,…

This manual includes two self-instructional modules relating to the evaluation efforts of Michael Scriven and Daniel L. Stufflebeam. By working through the first module the reader can develop a basic understanding of Scriven's three main evaluation contributions: formative-summative evaluation, goal-free evaluation, and the Pathway Comparison…

This report consists of two parts. The first section identifies issues concerning the "Standards for Evaluations of Educational Programs, and Materials." In the second, these issues are addressed through an agenda for conducting projects designed to study and improve the contents and uses of the standards. (BW)

The need for competent formal evaluation programs, particularly for new federally assisted programs, is expressed. Problems in defining educational evaluation and its requirements, in designing such evaluations, and 3 possible sources of faulty conceptual bases for evaluations, are presented. An attempt is made to define evaluation in general, to…

The dimensions of educational evaluation include conceptualization and technology of evaluation. The methods have been drawn from the area of educational and psychological research. The techniques of evaluation need to serve the information needs of clients, address the central value issues, deal with situational realities, meet requirements of…

Point of entry problems are faced by evaluators when asked to start an evaluation at an inappropriate time or to perform an inappropriate study. The fundamental purpose of evaluation is to help improve services. Guidelines are presented for choosing when to do a context, input, process, or product evaluation. (GDC)