I personally learned to know Ralph Tyler rather late in his career when, in the 1960s, I spent a year as a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. His term of office as Director of the Center was then approaching its end. This would seem to disqualify me thoroughly from preparing a Foreword to this "Classic Works. " Many of his colleagues and, not least, of his students at his dear Alma Mater, the University of Chicago, are certainly better prepared than I to put his role in American education in proper perspective. The reason for inviting me is, I...

Decision-Oriented Educational Research considers a form of educational research that is designed to be directly relevant to the current information requirements of those who are shaping educational policy or managing edu cational systems. It was written for those who plan to conduct such research, as well as for policy makers and educational administrators who might have such research conducted for them. The book is divided into three main parts. Part I is background. Chapter 1 describes some of the basic themes that are woven throughout subsequent chapters on decision-oriented research....

Phil R. Manning "Can you prove that continuing education really makes any difference?" Over the years, educators concerned with continuing education (CE) for health professionals have either heard or voiced that question in one form or another more than once. But because of the difficulty in measuring the specific effects of a given course, program, or conference, the question has not been answered satisfactorily. Since CE is costly, since CE is now mandated in some states for re-registration, and since its worth has not been proven in for mal evaluation research, the pressure to evaluate...

During the past two decades, evaluation has come to play an increasingly important role in the operation of educational and social programs by national, state, and local agencies. Mandates by federal funding agencies that programs they sponsored be evaluated gave impetus to use of evaluation. Realization that evaluation plays a pivotal role in assuring program quality and effectiveness has maintained the use of evaluation even where mandates have been relaxed. With increased use --indeed institutionalization --of evaluation in many community, state, and national agencies, evaluation has...

In the abstract, training is seen as valuable by most people in business and industry. However, in the rush of providing training programs "on time" and "within budget," evaluation of training is frequently left behind as a "nice to have" addition, if practical. In addition, the training function itself is left with the dilemma of proving its worth to management without a substantive history of evaluation. This book is designed to provide managers, educators, and trainers alike the opportunity to explore the issues and benefits of evaluating business and industry training. The purpose is to...

Evaluation Models is an up-to-date revision of the classic text first published in 1983. Organized in three sections, the first includes a historical perspective on the growth of evaluation theory and practice and two comparative analyses of the various alternative perspectives on evaluation. The second section includes articles representing the major schools of thought about evaluation written by the leaders who have developed these schools and models. The final section describes and discusses the Standards for Program Evaluation and the reformation of program evaluation.