An in-service teacher training course is described, designed for teachers of a new course in sixth-grade science, and presented partly by mobile teams and partly by radio. Planning of the content and presentation of the teacher training was done by a committee of five teachers and two others. (CTM)

An overview is presented of decision-oriented educational research, based on experiences in a large urban school district and on the literature. Alternative definitions of research use and evaluation use are discussed, with particular attention to the dissemination of research outcomes. (GDC)

Self evaluation of organizations is recommended to avoid problems and bias associated with external evaluations. Four approaches to evaluation include testing, site visits, congruence between expected and achieved objectives, and naturalistic or qualitative evaluation. The five judgement stages of evaluation are described; needs, goals,…

Concerns about the use of evaluation in early childhood education are clustered around some basic issues: the use of standardized tests with young children, the diversity of dimensions of early childhood education that should be evaluated, the relationship of early childhood evaluation to social policy, and the very nature of early childhood…

Three basic questions about early childhood evaluation are raised: (1) what is to be evaluated, including a discussion of product versus process evaluations; (2) who is to do the evaluating, including comments on external versus staff evaluations; and (3) for what purpose is the evaluation to be conducted, including a discussion of summative…

There are five goal domains in early childhood education that are worthy of evaluation. Three criteria should be used in judging goal statements: intrusiveness (does the goal intrude upon a basic need?); worthiness (what makes the goal worth pursuing?); and source (where do the goals come from?). (Author/LC)

Actual and potential contributions from the fields of anthropology, sociology, ecological and environmental psychology, and ethology to measurement and evaluation, particularly in early childhood education, are discussed. The diversity and potency of these approaches suggest that a multidisciplinary, eclectic approach to finding measures for…

Further development of research regarding the effectiveness of parent education programs depends upon a shift in conventional strategies of program evaluation. Current evaluation methods have been dominated by an interest in the outcomes of parent education programs. It is suggested that program evaluations should examine relationships between…

Two politically oriented factors are cited as major impediments to effective conveyance of evaluation findings to decision makers. The first factor, relevance, includes the elements of timing and matching of perceptions. The second, constituency support, includes recognition of reference groups and political benefits. (Author/LC)

The reasons for using tests in early childhood programs are (1) to increase teachers' confidence in their role performance; (2) to explain and defend early childhood programs; (3) to promote consistency across programs; (4) to provide curriculum and instruction guidance to teachers; and (5) to focus teachers and parents on the more measurable…

Like any other person, Albert Einstein was an informal evaluator, engaged in placing value on various aspects of his life, work, and the world. Based on Einstein's own statements, this paper speculates about what Einstein would have been like as a connoisseur evaluator, a conceptual evaluator, or a responsive evaluator. (Author/BW)

Because workloads frequently do not permit teachers to develop curriculum themselves, their participation in its formative evaluation (field testing) is a productive alternative. A seventh-grade biology program was evaluated by 14 teachers. (CP)