Designing Educational Project and Program Evaluations: A Practical Overview Based on Research and Experience

✍ Scribed by David A. Payne (auth.)

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 264
• Series: Evaluation in Education and Human Services 38
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Drawing upon experiences at state and local level project evaluation, and based on current research in the professional literature, Payne presents a practical, systematic, and flexible approach to educational evaluations. Evaluators at all levels -- state, local and classroom -- will find ideas useful in conducting, managing, and using evaluations. Special user targets identified are state department of education personnel and local school system administrative personnel. The volume can be used by those doing evaluation projects `in the field', or as a text for graduate courses at an introductory level.
The book begins with an overview of the generic evaluation process. Chapter Two is devoted to the criteria for judging the effectiveness of evaluation practice. Chapter Three addresses the all important topic of evaluation goals and objectives. Chapters Four, Five and Six basically are concerned with the approach, framework, or design of an evaluation study. Chapter Four contains a discussion of four major philosophical frameworks or metaphors and the implications of these frameworks for conducting an evaluation. Chapters Five and Six describe predominantly quantitative and qualitative designs, respectively. Design, implementation and operational issues related to instrumentation (Chapter Seven), management and decision making (Chapter Eight), and reporting and utilization of results (Chapter Nine) are next addressed. The final chapter of the book (Chapter Ten) considers the evaluation of educational products and materials.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xviii
Educational Evaluation: Definitions, Purposes, and Processes....Pages 1-20
Criteria for Effective and Ethical Evaluation Practice....Pages 21-38
Evaluation Goals, Objectives, and Questions....Pages 39-55
Evaluation Metaphors....Pages 57-91
Quantitatively Oriented Data Collection Designs....Pages 93-120
Qualitative and Ethnographic Evaluation....Pages 121-141
Creating and Selecting Instrumentation....Pages 143-171
Managing Evaluations....Pages 173-191
Communicating and Using Evaluation Results....Pages 193-203
Evaluating Educational Materials....Pages 205-215
Back Matter....Pages 217-258

✦ Subjects

Assessment, Testing and Evaluation