What Makes a School Evaluation Work?

Abstract

tion study of a public school program becomes a useful working document to program decision-makers is a conundrum that would baffle even Oedipus. Sometimes, however, evaluators do see the fruits of their labors ripen into a document whose pages become dog-eared, paper clipped, and dirty from reference to it by program decision-makers. Recently, I directed an evaluation study which turned out that way. The evaluation was a comprehensive, rather formal, and objective appraisal of a patently political program. The impact that this evaluation had upon the program-both in terms of policy decisions by program administrators and the staff feelings brought into focus for the first time-was simply astonishing. Let me set the scene. Dr. Wilson Riles, California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, has successfully developed a political base by establishing an Early Childhood Education program (ECE) in the primary grades of a majority of the state's elementary schools. Albeit formal evaluations of ECE are diverse and conflicting in their conclusions of the program's impact upon student achievement, it is generally conceded that from Riles' perspective the effort has been politically worthwhile. It is understandable then, that Riles would wish to extend ECE into the secondary schools. The vehicle for secondary schools' involvement was RISE (Reform in Intermediate and Secondary Education). The work began in 1975 with the formation of a commission whose charge was to make recommendations to Riles and the State Board of Education. Even-