The Development and Field Testing of Evaluation Workshop I: An Orientation

The general purpose of Evaluation Workshop I: An Orientation is to orient school and state department of education personnel to the basic principles, procedures, and problems associated with evaluating educational programs; and to the kinds of information an evaluation can provide for educational decision making. The workshop is based on the general evaluation model developed at the Center for the Study of Evaluation at UCLA. It takes two days to run and is ideally suited for groups of 30-45 participants. The workshop materials consist of an exportable leader’s manual, a notebook for each participant, and a set of exercises for each team of three participants. Each module of the workshop involves instruction in some facet of evaluation, practice in solving relevant problems in this area, and feedback and discussion of the correct answers. By the end of the workshop, participants have completed exercises involving the selection, collection, analysis, and reporting of evaluation information for decision making.

The development of the workshop began in January, 1969, as an “opportunity project” within the Center. Three feasibility studies of it were completed between March, 1969, and April, 1970, although there was a nine-month period in which no work was done on its development due to other commitments of the project’s staff. A revised version was developed and field tested at five sites with the target audiences during the Spring and early Summer of 1970. Although the results of these and the previous three sessions were quite positive, it was evident that a number of major changes were still needed before further field testing. These changes were made and the workshop was given two special field trials at the end of August, one involving professional staff from the Center, and the other personnel from the U.S. Office of Education and the National Science Foundation. After the necessary revisions were made, the workshop was then given 12 operational field tests throughout the United States between October, 1970 and August, 1971, with the target populations. The results of these field trials and a subsequent follow-up impact study were quite positive.

During the operational field testing, bids were requested for the publication and dissemination of the workshop. CTB/McGraw-Hill of Monterey, California, was subsequently chosen as the winning bidder and they began publication of the final version in August, 1971.