Although much has been written about educational evaluation, few guidelines exist for consumers--project directors, school administrators, curriculum developers, legislators, teachers, parents, and boards of education. Several cautions surface from a review of the literature. First, tests that are based on program objectives are most useful to evaluations. Such objectives-based or criterion referenced tests often must be created by the evaluation staff, but test construction is difficult, lengthy, and costly. Second, goals or objectives themselves must be evaluated before program planning. Third, program design should be described in detail and fourth, consumers should know how to select qualified evaluators. Empirical cost data were collected on completed evaluations whose budgets ranged from $400 to $3 million. The data were studied to obtain estimates of costs expected in relation to sample size, number of schools involved, number of test items developed and used, report length, and project staff time. Although a more thorough investigation is needed, these preliminary results should furnish a basis for estimating the cost of a proposed evaluation or determining how much evaluation can be done for x amount of dollars. (CP)