Evaluator's Handbook

The heart of the Program Evaluation Kit, this volume provides a broad overview of evaluation planning and a practical guide to designing and managing programs. Learn how the field of evaluation has changed over the last ten years. This volume is concise, informative, and clearly written. Major attention is given to: establishing an evaluation′s parameters; the how-to′s of formative and summative evaluation; and the power of evaluation studies that combine both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Also covered are recently developed evaluation standards; and a new emphasis on ongoing program monitoring in evaluation. The Evaluator′s Handbook also covers: concerns, user needs, and other socio-political factors that influence the utility of an evaluation. Strategies for maximizing utility are included throughout the evaluation planning, implementation, and reporting process.

Joan L. Herman is Director of the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) at UCLA. Her research has explored the effects of accountability and assessment on schools and teachers and the design of assessment systems to support school planning and instructional improvement. Her recent work has focused on the quality and consequences of teachers′ formative assessment practices. She also has wide experience as an evaluator of school reform.

Dr. Herman is noted in bridging research, and practice, particularly in applications serving English Language Learners and at-risk students. Among her books are Tracking Your School′s Success: A Guide to Sensible School-Based Evaluation; and A Practical Guide to Alternative Assessment, both of which have been popular resources for schools across the country. A former teacher and school board member, Dr. Herman is an elected AERA fellow, has published extensively in research journals and is a frequent advisor to prominent national and state research and development initiatives, including repeated service to the National Academy. She is past president of the California Educational Research Association; has held a variety of leadership positions in the American Educational Research Association, National Organization of Research Centers, and Knowledge Alliance; chairs the Para Los Niños school board, and is current editor of the research journal, Educational Assessment.

Carol Fitz-Gibbon initiated the A-Level Information System in 1983 and was Director of the Curriculum, Evaluation and Management Centre from 1989-2003 and Professor of Education at Durham from 1996-2003. She has a continuing interest in cross-age tutoring and Reforms as Experiments in an active retirement.