e-valuation

Any evaluation must consider whether the indicators to be used are truly available and high quality, and whether the cost of data collection are warranted. The failure of the four large testing companies to satisfactorily meet state testing demands created by NCLB is an excellent example of the triumph of ideology over reasoned evaluation practice. The NCLB requirement that all students in grades 3 trhough 8 be tested has created a boom for the testing industry. However, the oligopoly of the four major testing companies cannot meet the demand nor do the job well. The incidence of errors is widespread and the inability of these companies to deliver the test scores accurately and in a timely manner is apparent across the US. The article US Testing Companies Buckling Under Weight of NCLB illustrates the pervasiveness of the problems. What the article does not mention is the deep and long standing connections between the Bush family and the testing industry, particularly CTB/McGraw Hill.

The important “point of view” in evaluation is the context that provides the reference for making judgements about the quality of an evaluand.

There are a limited number of points of view that one might take in doing evaluation–some obvious ones are aesthetic, economic, political, religious. A POV is universal, i.e., for everyone and every culture there is each of these points of view. When one takes a POV, one necessarily takes certain criteria and indicators to be primary. For example, an economic point of view assumes things like markets, monetary value, and the like. Even though a POV is universal, within any POV there are potentially many orientations. Again using economics as an example, there are Marxist, free market, neo-liberal, fascist, and so on orientations.

Every evaluation is done from a particular POV and a particular orientation. Evaluators and all evaluand stakeholders will find evaluation more defensible and useful if there is clarity and agreement about what the POV and orientation for a particular evaluation is. Disagreement about assertions of value or dis-value are dependent on the context, from the point of view.