Three eras in the history of examining outcomes of education are described, and a new approach labeled as "assessment" is characterized as a postmodern era of achievement testing. This era is marked by increasing the teacher's authority to evaluate achievement and questioning the relevance of certain psychometric principles of evaluation. (SLD)

Stake's concept of responsive evaluation is designed to provide various decision makers with the kind of information desired and in the form most helpful for making decisions. Compared with formal research procedures, this approach has both advantages and disadvantages. It may also provide a valuable supplement to formal evaluation. (CTM)

The considerable discrepancy between the quantity of publications dealing with evaluation theory and those describing empirical evaluation studies is detrimental to the growth of curriculum evaluation as a scientific endeavor. This journal stresses the practical aspects of appraising instruction, learning schemes and educational materials. (BJG)

The Minimum Requirement Program (MRP) was introduced in Israel in the 1960s but was discontinued. The Parenthesis Program, a 1962 revision of the original program, restricted objectives in the syllabus which were deemed too difficult. Achievement gaps between population subgroups existed in the 1980s when a new MRP was developed. (GDC)

This article describes the Israel Curriculum Centre and gives a brief history of its role in Israeli society. The goals of the centre include: publishing syllabuses for all subjects, developing instructional materials that correspond to the syllabuses, and diffusing and implementing instructional products based on the syllabuses. (RB)