Poses questions stimulated by Professor Stanfield's essay that evaluators must ask to ensure the equity of evaluations. The questions include examinations of the effects of racism on understanding and action and how program outcomes and evaluative judgments are conditioned by racially shaped assumptions, presumptions, and politics. (SLD)

This volume describes the characteristics and functions of test items, presents editorial guidelines for writing test items, presents methods for determining the quality of test items, and presents a compendium of important issues about test items. (SLD)

This book defines school-based evaluation, situates it within the larger field of evaluation, and gives enough information about the organizational challenges school-based evaluation presents to allow highly-motivated educators to conduct evaluations. Principles, methods, and procedures are described, but technical details are generally not…

The authors of the "Guidelines," a task force of eight, intend to present an organized list of features to be considered in reporting or evaluating computerized-adaptive assessments. Apart from a few weaknesses, the book is a useful and complete document that will be very helpful to test developers. (SLD)

Describes one assessment instrument, the Classification Scheme for Emergent Reading of Favorite Storybooks, that has evolved into a tool for helping teachers understand development. Notes that the instrument can be used day to day to track the development of individuals or groups of children over time. (MG)

This month's previewed book is "Neal-Schuman Authoritative Guide To Evaluating Information on the Internet" by Alison Cooke. The excerpted chapter, "Evaluating Particular Types of Sources," looks at a variety of Internet sources, such as organizational World Wide Web sites, personal home pages, FTP archives, current awareness…

Discusses the inappropriate racial categorizations of minorities that have routinely infected evaluations and social research. By adhering to principles of democracy and including minorities as participants in dialogue, evaluators can avoid such damaging effects in their work. (Author/SLD)

Discusses the methodology and content of the evaluation of the Homeless Families Program. Focuses on data collection and the determination of program outcomes. Stresses the importance of stakeholder involvement and the flexibility of the evaluators as the evaluation unfolded. (SLD)

"Feedback to Managers" is a two-volume report. Volume 2 compares 16 of the better feedback instruments available. The following are the instruments: (1) ACUMEN Group Feedback; (2) BENCHMARKS; (3) the Campbell Leadership Index; (4) COMPASS: the Managerial Practices Survey; (5) the Executive Success Profile; (6) Leader Behavior Analysis…

Evaluates six "open" (empty of content and customized by users) software programs using the literature-based characteristics of documentation, learner control, branching capabilities, portability, ease of use, and cost-effectiveness. Interviewed computer-knowledgeable individuals to confirm the legitimacy of the evaluative characteristics. (LRW)

Defines what a concept is, evaluates the educational quality of concept books, suggests books suitable for young children, and discusses how concept books are tools for supplementing and reinforcing direct hands-on learning experiences. Concept books on color, shapes, numbers, counting, texture, movement, sound, and the alphabet are evaluated.(JMV)

This collection of diverse conference papers discusses work in the traditions of factor analysis, ordinal psychometrics, structural equations, and some special purpose models for the analysis of change. It is a useful source, but does little to link the psychometric framework to general developments in statistics and other disciplines. (SLD)

Reviews recent resources for assessing school library media programs and discusses the importance of program assessment. Circulation statistics and personal approaches to assessment are described, and the findings of three research reports on the effectiveness of school library media programs are discussed. (KRN)

Reviews and compares the following nine laptop computers, focusing on their capabilities for multimedia presentations: Apple Macintosh PowerBook G3, Chem USA ChemBook 9780, Compaq Armada 7792DMT, Dell Inspiron 3000 mZ66xT, Hewlett-Packard OmniBook 3000CTX, IBM ThinkPad 770, Micro Express NP8233MMX, NEC Versa 6260, and Panasonic CF-63. Evaluation…

Reviews two books criticizing the use of standardized testing. Nicholas Lehmann considers selective college admission based on the Scholastic Assessment Tests (SAT) offensive, since such tests never tap innate abilities. Peter Sacks develops a broader critique not confined to the SAT. The books suggest that effective education reform depends upon…