George F. Madaus

The Standards for Evaluation of Educational Programs, Projects, and Materials

In 1980, a Joint Committee appointed by 12 organizations1 concerned with educational evaluation issued one of the most significant documents to date in the field of educational evaluation. It consisted of a set of 30 standards to be used both to guide the conduct of evaluation of educational programs, projects, and materials and also to judge the soundness of such evaluations. The document, entitled Standards for Evaluations of Educational Programs, Projects, and Materials, 2 was published in 1981 by the McGraw-Hill Company. The standards were the result of an extensive developmental process, which involved the work of about 200 people and required more than four years to complete. The committee’s work did not stop with the publication of the standards, and it presently works to promote sound use and conducts a process of ongoing review and development. This chapter briefly describes the development of the standards and the nature of the standards, and summarizes them for the reader.

The Distortion of Teaching and Testing: High-Stakes Testing and Instruction.

(1988). The distortion of teaching and testing: High‐stakes testing and instruction. Peabody Journal of Education: Vol. 65, About Teachers and Teaching, pp. 29-46.

Program Evaluation: A Historical Overview

Evaluators need to be aware of both contemporary and historical aspects of their emerging profession, including its philosophical underpinnings and conceptual orientations. Without this background, evaluators are doomed to repeat past mistakes and, equally debilitating, will fail to sustain and build on past successes.

The Fractured Marketplace for Standardized Testing

List of Figures and Tables. Preface. 1. Introduction. 2. The Testing Industry. 3. The Extent of the Marketplace for Tests. 4. Social Investment in Educational Testing. 5. Forces behind the Testing Marketplace. 6. Spin-Offs from the Testing Industry. 7. Test Quality and the Fractured Marketplace for Testing. 8. Meding the Fractured Marketplace. References. Appendices. Index.

Retrospective on educational testing and assessment in the 20th century

Over the last 100 years, the ever-increasing demand for testing as a measure of educational reform has created a very profitable market for the US testing industry. We follow the growth of this market since the 1900s in two different, but related, ways. First, we discuss some of the technical developments that have encouraged the use of standardized testing in general and contributed to the growth of the commercial testing industry. Second, we attempt to quantify the expansion of the testing marketplace during the 20th century by tracking several indirect indices of growth over time. We conclude that although technical innovations may have contributed to the growth of the US testing marketplace, they do not necessarily lead to better tests or better outcomes for those who use them. There is a need to more carefully monitor the effects of these tests on teaching and learning in general, particularly when the tests are used in high-stakes contexts.

Do Teacher Ratings and Standardized Test Results of Students Yield the Same Information

Teachers in Ireland (n = 170) rated students (n = 2,617) on IQ, mathematics, and English, as well as on 12 social and academic classroom behaviors. Factor analysis of IQ, mathematics, and English standardized test scores, together with the 15 teacher ratings, showed that there is overlap between ratings and test results but that the information obtained is not redundant. Three factors were identified: one was comprised primarily of the social behaviors; a second was comprised of the academic classroom behaviors and teacher ratings on IQ, mathematics, and English; and the third was comprised of the test scores in IQ, mathematics, and English together with the corresponding teacher ratings.

The Irish Experience in Competency Testing: Implications for American Education

The move in the United States to use competency tests for grade-to-grade promotion decisions is likely to have far-reaching effects thoughout the school system. The United States can benefit from the experience of other nations that have used similar tests as an administrative mechanism. We examine some of the negative outcomes of the mandatory external primary school-leaving certificate examination--officially entitled the Examination for Primary School Certificate--that was administered to all sixth-grade pupils in Ireland between 1943 and 1967. The similarity between the process of initiating the primary certificate examination and the present minimum competency test movement is highlighted. Attention is focused on the primary certificate examination itself, its content, its level of reading difficulty and passing standards, and its effects on instructional emphasis and on grade-to-grade promotion practices. The formal resistance of the teachers to the examination is described. The article shows that sixth-grade teachers tended to emphasize subject areas covered by the examination to the detriment of other subjects. The content of previous examinations came to define the curriculum. Teachers tended to adopt a policy of not promoting weaker pupils in order to control the potential failure rate on the examination. The authors conclude that the Irish experience should at the very least offer warning signals to American educators of the possible dangers inherent in the use of minimum competency tests as the sole or primary determinant of decisions concerning grade-to-grade promotion.

Comparing Teacher Assessment and Standard Task Results in England: The relationship between pupil characteristics and attainment

Abstract This study examines the 1992 National Curriculum assessment data from one large LEA in England in order to address the issue of equity. For comparison purposes we also present additional data obtained front the same sample of pupils on an NFER standardised word recognition test. The report focuses on the relative performance of gender, low income, linguistic, and special needs groups on a standardised reading test and the teacher (TA) and standard task (ST) performance assessments administered in 1992 to 7‐year‐olds as part of the national curriculum (NC) in England and Wales. The impact of schools and teacher effectiveness on student attainments scores is also examined and discussed. Briefly, the findings show that irrespective of the method of assessment, differences in attainment were found between most pupil groups investigated. However, importantly, only very modest evidence was found that particular methods of assessment appeared either to reduce or increase the differences in attainment an...

The Clarification Hearing: A Personal View of the Process

It was early morning of the second day of the Clarification Hearings in Washington, D.C. I was seated in front of the makeup table cluttered with bottles, tins, and brushes of all sorts, my new TV-compatible suit and blue shirt carefully protected by a bib. As the makeup artist was applying a brown fluid to my face (and undoubtedly wishing she had the skills of a plastic surgeon). Bob Ebel happened by the door. Seeing Bob, the incongruity of the situation hit me. How did I and a number of my colleagues in the next room waiting their turn in front of the lightbulb-studded mirror, get involved in this alien world? While I had my doubts from the beginning, Bob’s appearance triggered the realization that 11 months earlier, when I agreed to serve as team leader for the negative side in the Clarification Hearings on Minimum Competency Testing (MCT). I really had no idea what I had let myself in for. I was again brought up short about the implications of the whole process and my part in two weeks ago after viewing, along with students and colleagues here at Boston College, the edited version of the hearings on public television. In what follows I have attempted to describe my reactions and feelings, both positive and negative, to various aspects of the process leading up to the hearings, the hearing itself, and the final TV product developed by Maryland Public Broadcasting (MPB).

New Dimensions in Curriculum Development

I have been asked to comment on my 1960 monograph titled Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction, indicating how this formulation came to be and to what extent I have “rethought, changed, updated, clarified my position.” This is an assignment which I have found interesting, although it is provincial in focusing attention on one person’s work.