This study concerns school based evaluation; evaluation of a
school or some aspect of its operation which is carried out by the
teachers and other interested members of the school community. When
the decision to evaluate and the control of the evaluation are at the
school level a complex, dynamic situation is created. The teachers in
the school concurrently have roles as evaluators and as those being
evaluated, as well as continuing in their other normal teachers' roles.
The history of educational evaluation in the United States of
America, the United Kingdom and Australia is traced. An outline is
given of the developments in the more traditional methods based on
measurement of achievement of objectives on the one hand, and on the
'informed judgement of experts' on the other. It is suggested that
improvements in both methods have led to a constructive method of
evaluation with its roots in both traditions. Some checklists and
guidelines for planning evaluations are also reviewed.
Interviews were carried out in an A.C.T. high school which had
completed an evaluation almost a year earlier. Twenty people were
interviewed: some teachers, some parents and a member of the
Evaluation and Research Section of the A.C.T. Schools Office. All
had been involved with or affected by the evaluation.
If an evaluation is initiated and controlled at the school level
many new complexities are introduced into the situation. The process
of the evaluation becomes of paramount importance. The way the
evaluation is initiated and planned, the way information is collected
and analysed, and the way decisions are arrived at are uppermost in
participants' minds. Probably the early stages are the most crucial in
establishing the climate and structure for the evaluation, and in
developing participants' skills. The effects on staff relationships,
staff/parent relationships and the general climate of the school are
what the participants are most aware of. There usually are outcomes
of a school based evaluation arising from recommendations, but these
often are more subtle than those of a traditional evaluation by
outsiders. Changes may also occur during the evaluation, rather than
at the end after the presentation of a report as was more traditionally
the case.
There is a place for school based evaluation in Australian schools,
but it should be recognised as a complex process which may involve
participants in new roles in an extremely dynamic situation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/218975 |
| Date | January 1983 |
| Creators | Groves, Robin Clive, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Robin Clive Groves |
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