Evaluative Inquiry: Using Evaluation to Promote Student Success

Foreword by Grant Wiggins
Afterword by Michael Fullan

"[Parsons′ work remind us] that collegial consideration of what works, what doesn′t, and why is . . . interesting and enjoyable professional work."
From the Foreword by Grant Wiggins

"Whether you are planning a limited innovation in a few classrooms or implementing new state standards as a whole-school or districtwide change, this book will help you chart your course."
Judith Renyi, Executive Director
The NEA Foundation for the Improvement of Education

"In clear, accessible language, Beverly Parsons demystifies evaluation and provides numerous practical examples of how schools can use the methods she describes to better understand the process of change and achieve their goals―and to create schools in which youngsters and adults thrive."
Dennis Sparks, Executive Director
National Staff Development Council

"Parson′s evaluative inquiry framework is a gold mine of ideas and designs. It is at once complex, accessible, and comprehensive."
From the Afterword by Michael Fullan, Dean
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
University of Toronto

Improve learning for all students in all environments!

Evaluative Inquiry advances the capacity of teachers and principals to provide more effective learning for all students in every type of academic environment. In this jargon-free book, Parsons delivers a systematic program evaluation process for gathering, analyzing, and identifying what changes are needed in schools today for productive learning.

Parsons provides the guidance, step-by-step instructions, and easy-to-use forms to help educators and school leaders understand and implement this hands-on, in-depth program evaluation process. Evaluative Inquiry can help you discover if your programs and initiatives are making a difference and whether they enhance the successes of students and teachers alike.

Three types of evaluative inquiry are explored in this book:

• Quality―Does the initiative promote high-quality learning?
• Sustainability―Can the initiative be sustained?
• Cultivation―Can the initiative be expanded and nurtured?

This unique book puts the evaluative process into the hands of principals, teachers, administrators, board members, foundations, and community members. It contains a number of real-life case examples to clearly demonstrate how the process actually works and outlines the tangible, successful results you can expect to realize in your own school or district.

 

Beverly A. Parsons is Executive Director of InSites in Colorado. InSites, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, assists education and social service systems through research, evaluation, and planning. She focuses on the evaluation and planning of systemic change. Her evaluation work has involved initiatives to restructure and reculture pre­school through university education systems as well as bring about reform in spe­cific content areas (mathematics, science, humanities, arts, and world languages). She has provided evaluation services to the National Staff Development Council, the NEA Foundation for the Improvement of Education, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, and numerous other foundations and organizations and has worked on projects in Japan, China, and South Africa, as well as throughout the United States. During her 10-year affiliation with the Denver-based Education Commission of the States (a national interstate compact assisting governors, legislators, and state education and business leaders to improve education through leadership and pol­icy), she led ECS’s comprehensive effort to bring about fundamental changes in the education system at school, district, state, and university levels in partnership with the Coalition of Essential Schools. In her earlier years at ECS she served as Director of the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Much of her early knowledge and skills in assessment, evaluation, and research were honed at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory in Portland, Oregon, where she served as Director of the Assessment and Measurement Program and while with the Shannon County School District, serving the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. She has published and led seminars on systems change issues and has spoken extensively about them to practitioners and policymakers. She has been on the board of the National Council on Measurement in Education and co-chair of the Clus­ter/Multi-Site Evaluation Topical Interest Group of the American Evaluation Asso­ciation. Her doctorate in educational research and evaluation is from the University of Colorado.