The Value In Evaluation

Abstract

he decade of the 1980s might well be remembered as the age of educational Evaluation has always been basic to education; however, it has never before been so comprehensively applied to so many areas to solve so many different types of problems. Although much controversy remains about what evaluation entails and how it should be used, few educators dispute the in However, I want to discuss a more subtle meaning to the phrase in evaluation. Testing, measuring, and grading have become such integral parts of education that we sometimes forget just what evaluation means. We forget that there is value in evaluation-that evaluation is actually a process of valuing. Theoretical support for the premise that evaluation is a valuing process can be found in the works of both behavioral and humanistic writers. David Premack of-