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Evaluating Early Years Practice in Your School: A practical tool for reflective teaching

Evaluating Early Years Practice in Your School focuses on raising Early Years practitioners' confidence so that they worry less and achieve more. Linked to the teaching standards and the Ofsted framework, this invaluable guide looks at ways that teachers can evaluate their own EYFS practice to reduce unnecessary workload and allow for more 'hands-on' teaching and learning.Should children in Reception classes attend school assemblies? Should young children be taught to write in nursery? Should practitioners' plans be based on young children's specific interests or should they look to meet the needs of individuals entering Early Years settings with speech and language delay or autism? Early Years specialist Ann Langston considers all of these questions and more to present simple solutions for teachers and leaders on what to plan, what assessments are needed and how to approach teaching and learning.With chapters on observation and assessment, continuous provision, outdoor learning, transition, and internal and external evaluation, this book is ideal for all Early Years practitioners and leaders looking at ways to reflect on their approach to teaching and feel confident about their own judgements and the effectiveness of their practice.

Evaluating Educational and Social Programs: Guidelines for Proposal Review, Onsite Evaluation, Evaluation Contracts, and Technical Assistance (Evaluation in Education and Human Services #15)

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 matured as a profession, and new evaluation approaches have been developed to aid in program planning, implementation, monitoring, and improvement. Much has been written about various philosophical and theoretical orientations to evaluation, its relationship to program management, appropriate roles evaluation might play, new and sometimes esoteric evaluation methods, and particular evaluation techniques. Useful as these writings are, relatively little has been written about simple but enormously important activities which comprise much of the day-to-day work of the program evaluator. This book is focused on some of these more practical aspects that largely determine the extent to which evaluation will prove helpful.

Evaluating European Education Policy-Making: Privatization, Networks and the European Commission

This collection is an inside look at European Commission policy-making in education and the privatization of policy-making in the European Union. Along with contributions from leading academics in the field of educational policy and policy-sociology, this book also introduces the voices of policy consultants and policy-makers.

Evaluating Evaluators: An Evaluation of Education in Germany

How do evaluators of higher education go about their work? How are groups of evaluators put together? How do they reach consensus on the criteria of quality in the discipline or degree programme under examination? What problems do evaluators encounter and how do they resolve them? Susan Harris-Huemmert investigates these questions in this detailed case study of an evaluation commission that inspected education departments in the German state of Baden-Württemberg (universities and teacher-training colleges) during 2003/2004. This work takes up not only topics germane to evaluators of higher education, but also illustrates the politics and contextual issues surrounding the discipline of education in Germany during the first decade of the 21st century.

Evaluating, Improving, and Judging Faculty Performance in Two-Year Colleges

With nearly 48 percent of all U.S. undergraduates attending community and technical colleges, the two-year sector is an integral part of our nation's higher education system and a vital part of our nation's future. The need for effective faculty evaluation and professional development within two-year colleges stems partly from the size of this sector and also from the diversity of its program offerings and its student body. Miller and his co-authors bring timely, authoritative, and practical material to two audiences in this rapidly growing field of education: first, teachers who have permanent appointments but could use professional development and improvement; and, second, the already large and still growing number of part-time instructors who could use more evaluating and improving. This book is intended to be a direct assistance for these groups as well as to administrators who must make personal decisions.This professional book is for human resource managers and staff development officers of two-year colleges. A greater emphasis needs to be placed on human resource management, according to Miller and his co-authors, that will result in better personnel decision making.

Evaluating Language Assessments (New Perspectives on Language Assessment Series)

Evaluating Language Assessments offers a comprehensive overview of the theoretical bases and research methodologies for the evaluation of language assessments and demonstrates the importance of a fuller understanding of this widely used evaluative tool. The volume explores language assessment evaluation in its wider political, economic, social, legal, and ethical contexts while also illustrating quantitative and qualitative methods through discussions of key research studies. Suitable for students in applied linguistics, second language acquisition and language assessment and education, this book makes the case for a clear and rigorous understanding of the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of language assessment evaluation in order to achieve fair assessments and just institutions.

Evaluating Language Assessments (New Perspectives on Language Assessment Series)

Evaluating Language Assessments offers a comprehensive overview of the theoretical bases and research methodologies for the evaluation of language assessments and demonstrates the importance of a fuller understanding of this widely used evaluative tool. The volume explores language assessment evaluation in its wider political, economic, social, legal, and ethical contexts while also illustrating quantitative and qualitative methods through discussions of key research studies. Suitable for students in applied linguistics, second language acquisition and language assessment and education, this book makes the case for a clear and rigorous understanding of the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of language assessment evaluation in order to achieve fair assessments and just institutions.

Evaluating Learning Environments: Snapshots of Emerging Issues, Methods and Knowledge (Advances in Learning Environments Research)

The recent trend in innovative school design has provided exciting places to both learn and teach. New generation learning environments have encouraged educators to unleash responsive pedagogies previously hindered by traditional classrooms, and has allowed students to engage in a variety of learning experiences well beyond the traditional ‘chalk and talk’ common in many schools. These spaces have made cross-disciplinary instruction, collaborative learning, individualised curriculum, ubiquitous technologies, and specialised equipment more accessible than ever before. The quality of occupation of such spaces has also been encouraging. Many learning spaces now resemble places of collegiality, intellectual intrigue and comfort, as opposed to the restrictive and monotonous classrooms many of us experienced in years past.These successes, however, have generated a very real problem. Do these new generation learning environments actually work – and if so, in what ways? Are they leading to the sorts of improved experiences and learning outcomes for students they promise? This book describes strategies for assessing what is actually working. Drawing on the best thinking from our best minds – doctoral students tackling the challenge of isolating space as a variable within the phenomenon of contemporary schooling – Evaluating Learning Environments draws together thirteen approaches to learning environment evaluation that capture the latest thinking in terms of emerging issues, methods and knowledge.

Evaluating Literacy Instruction: Principles and Promising Practices

This must-read book for all literacy educators illuminates the intersection of research on literacy instruction and teacher evaluation. Since 2009, 46 states have changed or revised policies related to evaluating teachers and school leaders. In order for these new policies to be used to support and develop effective literacy instruction, resources are needed that connect the best of what is known about teaching literacy with current evaluation policies and support practices. A major contribution to meeting this need, the volume brings together a range of perspectives on tools, systems, and policies for the evaluation of teaching, organized into two sections: • Crafting Systems and Policies for Evaluating Literacy Instruction • Examples of Alternative Systems/Approaches for Evaluating Literacy Instruction Across the text, expert scholars in the field emphasize the need for literacy professionals to do more than merely apply generic observation instruments for teacher evaluation, but also to consider how these tools reflect professional values, how elements of effective literacy instruction can be unearthed or included within them, and how teacher evaluation systems and policies can be used to increase students’ opportunities to develop literacy.

Evaluating Literacy Instruction: Principles and Promising Practices

This must-read book for all literacy educators illuminates the intersection of research on literacy instruction and teacher evaluation. Since 2009, 46 states have changed or revised policies related to evaluating teachers and school leaders. In order for these new policies to be used to support and develop effective literacy instruction, resources are needed that connect the best of what is known about teaching literacy with current evaluation policies and support practices. A major contribution to meeting this need, the volume brings together a range of perspectives on tools, systems, and policies for the evaluation of teaching, organized into two sections: • Crafting Systems and Policies for Evaluating Literacy Instruction • Examples of Alternative Systems/Approaches for Evaluating Literacy Instruction Across the text, expert scholars in the field emphasize the need for literacy professionals to do more than merely apply generic observation instruments for teacher evaluation, but also to consider how these tools reflect professional values, how elements of effective literacy instruction can be unearthed or included within them, and how teacher evaluation systems and policies can be used to increase students’ opportunities to develop literacy.

Evaluating Online Teaching: Implementing Best Practices

Create a more effective system for evaluating online faculty Evaluating Online Teaching is the first comprehensive book to outline strategies for effectively measuring the quality of online teaching, providing the tools and guidance that faculty members and administrators need. The authors address challenges that colleges and universities face in creating effective online teacher evaluations, including organizational structure, institutional governance, faculty and administrator attitudes, and possible budget constraints. Through the integration of case studies and theory, the text provides practical solutions geared to address challenges and foster effective, efficient evaluations of online teaching. Readers gain access to rubrics, forms, and worksheets that they can customize to fit the needs of their unique institutions. Evaluation methods designed for face-to-face classrooms, from student surveys to administrative observations, are often applied to the online teaching environment, leaving reviewers and instructors with an ill-fitted and incomplete analysis. Evaluating Online Teaching shows how strategies for evaluating online teaching differ from those used in traditional classrooms and vary as a function of the nature, purpose, and focus of the evaluation. This book guides faculty members and administrators in crafting an evaluation process specifically suited to online teaching and learning, for more accurate feedback and better results. Readers will: Learn how to evaluate online teaching performance Examine best practices for student ratings of online teaching Discover methods and tools for gathering informal feedback Understand the online teaching evaluation life cycle The book concludes with an examination of strategies for fostering change across campus, as well as structures for creating a climate of assessment that includes online teaching as a component. Evaluating Online Teaching helps institutions rethink the evaluation process for online teaching, with the end goal of improving teaching and learning, student success, and institutional results.

Evaluating Online Teaching: Implementing Best Practices

Create a more effective system for evaluating online faculty Evaluating Online Teaching is the first comprehensive book to outline strategies for effectively measuring the quality of online teaching, providing the tools and guidance that faculty members and administrators need. The authors address challenges that colleges and universities face in creating effective online teacher evaluations, including organizational structure, institutional governance, faculty and administrator attitudes, and possible budget constraints. Through the integration of case studies and theory, the text provides practical solutions geared to address challenges and foster effective, efficient evaluations of online teaching. Readers gain access to rubrics, forms, and worksheets that they can customize to fit the needs of their unique institutions. Evaluation methods designed for face-to-face classrooms, from student surveys to administrative observations, are often applied to the online teaching environment, leaving reviewers and instructors with an ill-fitted and incomplete analysis. Evaluating Online Teaching shows how strategies for evaluating online teaching differ from those used in traditional classrooms and vary as a function of the nature, purpose, and focus of the evaluation. This book guides faculty members and administrators in crafting an evaluation process specifically suited to online teaching and learning, for more accurate feedback and better results. Readers will: Learn how to evaluate online teaching performance Examine best practices for student ratings of online teaching Discover methods and tools for gathering informal feedback Understand the online teaching evaluation life cycle The book concludes with an examination of strategies for fostering change across campus, as well as structures for creating a climate of assessment that includes online teaching as a component. Evaluating Online Teaching helps institutions rethink the evaluation process for online teaching, with the end goal of improving teaching and learning, student success, and institutional results.

Evaluating Preparation Programs for School Leaders and Teachers in Specialty Areas (Evaluation in Education and Human Services #29)

Evaluating R&D Impacts: Methods And Practice

A critical issue in research and development (R&D) management is the structure and use of evaluative efforts for R&D programs. The book introduces the different methods that may be used in R&D evaluation and then illustrates these methods by describing actual evaluation in practice using those methods. The book is divided into two sections. The first section provides an introduction and details on several popular methodologies used in the evaluation of research and development activities. The second half of the book focuses on evaluation in practice and is comprised of several chapters offering the perspectives of individuals in different types of organizations. The book concludes with an annotated bibliography of selected R&D evaluation literature, focusing on post-1985 literature, on research evaluation.

Evaluating Research Efficiency of Chinese Universities (New Frontiers of Educational Research)

This book employs the modern econometric approaches such as DEA, Malmquist Index and Tobit models to evaluate research effectiveness and productivity of research-oriented universities in China. On the basis of five-year longitudinal data of more than a hundred “Project 211” universities, this book illustrates the current status of the effectiveness and productivity of research-oriented universities , demonstrating regional differences, exploring dynamic changes and identifying underlying factors. Any researcher or policymaker who cares about the recent development in Chinese higher education in the 21st century will benefit from our in-depth analyses. ​

Evaluating Scholarship and Research Impact: History, Practices, and Policy Development (Great Debates in Higher Education)

Faculty members, scholars, and researchers often ask where they should publish their work; which outlets are most suitable to showcase their research? Which journals should they publish in to ensure their work is read and cited? How can the impact of their scholarly output be maximized? The answers to these and related questions affect not only individual scholars, but also academic and research institution stakeholders who are under constant pressure to create and implement organizational policies, evaluation measures and reward systems that encourage quality, high impact research from their members. The explosion of academic research in recent years, along with advances in information technology, has given rise to omnipresent and increasingly important scholarly metrics. These measures need to be assessed and used carefully, however, as their widespread availability often tempts users to jump to improper conclusions without considering several caveats. While various quantitative tools enable the ranking, evaluating, categorizing, and comparing of journals and articles, metrics such as author or article citation counts, journal impact factors, and related measures of institutional research output are somewhat inconsistent with traditional goals and objectives of higher education research and scholarly academic endeavors. This book provides guidance to individual researchers, research organizations, and academic institutions as they grapple with rapidly developing issues surrounding scholarly metrics and their potential value to both policy-makers, as evaluation and measurement tools, and individual scholars, as a way to identify colleagues for potential collaboration, promote their position as public intellectuals, and support intellectual community engagement.

Evaluating Scholarship and Research Impact: History, Practices, and Policy Development (Great Debates in Higher Education)

Faculty members, scholars, and researchers often ask where they should publish their work; which outlets are most suitable to showcase their research? Which journals should they publish in to ensure their work is read and cited? How can the impact of their scholarly output be maximized? The answers to these and related questions affect not only individual scholars, but also academic and research institution stakeholders who are under constant pressure to create and implement organizational policies, evaluation measures and reward systems that encourage quality, high impact research from their members. The explosion of academic research in recent years, along with advances in information technology, has given rise to omnipresent and increasingly important scholarly metrics. These measures need to be assessed and used carefully, however, as their widespread availability often tempts users to jump to improper conclusions without considering several caveats. While various quantitative tools enable the ranking, evaluating, categorizing, and comparing of journals and articles, metrics such as author or article citation counts, journal impact factors, and related measures of institutional research output are somewhat inconsistent with traditional goals and objectives of higher education research and scholarly academic endeavors. This book provides guidance to individual researchers, research organizations, and academic institutions as they grapple with rapidly developing issues surrounding scholarly metrics and their potential value to both policy-makers, as evaluation and measurement tools, and individual scholars, as a way to identify colleagues for potential collaboration, promote their position as public intellectuals, and support intellectual community engagement.

Evaluating Schools: Dynamic Production of Scoring Decisions in the School Inspection Process

This book provides an analysis of how inspection teams evaluate schools – especially how they decide on assigning scores. It shows how the governance of schools through evaluation is enacted pragmatically. With its focus on the practice of evaluation by a group of external experts, it contributes to the expanding interdisciplinary field devoted to studying phenomena of the ‘evaluation society’ spanning from assessment research to programme evaluation, from the psychology of decision-making to the sociology of valuation and evaluation. Additionally, it argues that official inspection systems frame the inspection process, but cannot fully determine scoring practice. The implementation of official scoring guidelines is characterized by irreducible uncertainty requiring professional discretion for its resolution. Inspection teams thus must employ a flexible and pragmatic approach to finalize their scoring task. By drawing on empirical data from six observed inspection teams from two German states, it provides profound insights into how real evaluation decisions were made. This book is valuable to anyone seeking to understand evaluation in education – in particular scholars, policy-makers and educators in the field of school evaluation and accountability.

Evaluating Student Learning Outcomes in Counselor Education

This timely text describes the role of program evaluation in counselor education and provides step-by-step guidance for faculty seeking to develop comprehensive Student Learning Outcome (SLO) evaluation plans to meet accountability expectations. It serves as a blueprint for demystifying the SLO process and making the switch from an input-based measure of productivity that focuses on what counseling programs do, to an outcome-based approach that concentrates on the quality of learning through evidence-based assessment of students’ knowledge and skills. The first and second parts of the book lay the foundation for the SLO process and provide practical guidance for identifying and developing direct and indirect measures of student learning. Part III offers strategies for creating measures; collecting, managing, and reporting student data; and using data to ensure competence. In Part IV, counselor educators across the country offer hands-on application through a wide variety of SLO activities and rubrics linked to each of the curricular and specialty areas of the 2016 CACREP Standards. *Requests for digital versions from the ACA can be found on wiley.com. *To request print copies, please visit the ACA website here. *Reproduction requests for material from books published by ACA should be directed to permissions@counseling.org

Evaluating Student Learning Outcomes in Counselor Education

This timely text describes the role of program evaluation in counselor education and provides step-by-step guidance for faculty seeking to develop comprehensive Student Learning Outcome (SLO) evaluation plans to meet accountability expectations. It serves as a blueprint for demystifying the SLO process and making the switch from an input-based measure of productivity that focuses on what counseling programs do, to an outcome-based approach that concentrates on the quality of learning through evidence-based assessment of students’ knowledge and skills. The first and second parts of the book lay the foundation for the SLO process and provide practical guidance for identifying and developing direct and indirect measures of student learning. Part III offers strategies for creating measures; collecting, managing, and reporting student data; and using data to ensure competence. In Part IV, counselor educators across the country offer hands-on application through a wide variety of SLO activities and rubrics linked to each of the curricular and specialty areas of the 2016 CACREP Standards. *Requests for digital versions from the ACA can be found on wiley.com. *To request print copies, please visit the ACA website here. *Reproduction requests for material from books published by ACA should be directed to permissions@counseling.org

Evaluating Teacher Quality in Higher Education

Drawing on material presented at a one day conference, this collection addresses the need to recognize academics' contributions to higher education, as well as the ways in which academics' efforts in the teaching and learning process can be acknowledged and suitably rewarded.

Evaluating Teacher Quality in Higher Education

Drawing on material presented at a one day conference, this collection addresses the need to recognize academics' contributions to higher education, as well as the ways in which academics' efforts in the teaching and learning process can be acknowledged and suitably rewarded.

Evaluating Teachers And Administrators: A Performance Objectives Approach

Stressing the importance of using evaluation as a means to improve teacher and administrator performance, Dr. Redfern provides a practical guide to conducting an evaluation and using its results. He thoroughly describes the anatomy of the evaluation process, outlines the materials needed, and covers such often-neglected topics as evaluation of substandard performance, assessment of the performance of administrators and supervisors, evaluation as an administrative tool in education management, and the potential pitfalls inherent in the evaluation process. The book closes with detailed suggestions for developing or revising programs for personnel evaluation.

Evaluating Teachers And Administrators: A Performance Objectives Approach

Stressing the importance of using evaluation as a means to improve teacher and administrator performance, Dr. Redfern provides a practical guide to conducting an evaluation and using its results. He thoroughly describes the anatomy of the evaluation process, outlines the materials needed, and covers such often-neglected topics as evaluation of substandard performance, assessment of the performance of administrators and supervisors, evaluation as an administrative tool in education management, and the potential pitfalls inherent in the evaluation process. The book closes with detailed suggestions for developing or revising programs for personnel evaluation.

Evaluating Teaching and Learning: A practical handbook for colleges, universities and the scholarship of teaching

Every semester, colleges and universities ask students to complete innumerable course and teaching evaluation questionnaires to evaluate the learning and teaching in courses they have taken. For many universities it is a requirement that all courses be evaluated every semester. The laudable rationale is that the feedback provided will enable instructors to improve their teaching and the curriculum, thus enhancing the quality of student learning. In spite of this there is little evidence that it does improve the quality of teaching and learning. Ratings only improve if the instruments and the presentation of results are sufficiently diagnostic to identify potential improvements and there is effective counselling. Evaluating Teaching and Learning explains how evaluation can be more effective in enhancing the quality of teaching and learning and introduces broader and more diverse forms of evaluation. This guide explains how to develop questionnaires and protocols which are valid, reliabile and diagnostic. It also contains proven instruments that have undergone appropriate testing procedures, together with a substantial item bank. The book looks at the specific national frameworks for the evaluation of teaching in use in the USA, UK and Australia. It caters for diverse methodologies, both quantitative and qualitative and offers solutions that allow evaluation at a wide range of levels: from classrooms to programmes to departments and entire institutions. With detail on all aspects of the main evaluation techniques and instruments, the authors show how effective evaluation can make use of a variety of approaches and combine them into an effective project. With a companion website which has listings of the questionnaires and item bank, this book will be of interest to those concerned with organising and conducting evaluation in a college, university, faculty or department. It will also appeal to those engaged in the scholarship of teaching and learning.