Emerging Models for Educational Evaluation

In this chapter I will develop three ideas that seem to me to hold promise for improving the process of educational evaluation. These ideas deal with some of the issues surrounding the character and functions of educational objectives, the variety of outcomes that one might reasonably expect schooling to yield, and a set of methods that appear useful for evaluating the character and effects of school programs. That the relationship between objectives and evaluation is, at least theoretically, an intimate one is clear. Almost all writers on education generally and curriculum theory particularly emphasize the point that evaluation procedures should be related to the objectives one has formulated. Thus, any modification in either the content or the form of objectives can have important implications for the method and goals of evaluation. This paper describes some ways in which objectives can be conceived and provides the conditions necessary for expanding modes of educational evaluation.