Guy Benveniste

Evaluation as Policymaking: Introducing Evaluation into a National Decentralized Educational System

Part 1 The education system in Norway - the need for evaluation, Marit Granheim. Part 2 The governing of education systems and decentralization: education policy making, decentralization and evaluation, Ulf P.Lundgren decentralization in educational governance - an exercise in contradiction, Hans Weiler factors behind decentralization in educational systems, Jon Lauglo. Part 3 Decentralization, evaluation and knowledge production: some problems and problematics in the production of evaluation, Thomas S.Popkewitz evaluation and decentralization of knowledge, Steinar Kvale the trade off between evaluation and autonomy - who cheats who?, Kjell Eide national assessment of competencies and skills, Ingmar Wedman. Part 4 The state of the art and specific policy questions: the American debate on educational evaluation and the national evaluation in Sweden, Sigbrit Franke-Wikeberg evaluation in the context of national policy and local organization - the U.S. case, Gary Sykes some notes on a Norwegian evaluation programme, Erik Wallin evaluation and political governing in a decentralized educational system - giving integration of the handicapped in education a national policy concern, Lise Vislie. Part 5 The case of Norway - decentralization evaluation for Norway, Ernest R.House evaluation in a decentralized school system - where to we stand, Tim Tiller fitting evaluation with the governance of education, Maurice Kogan.

Evaluation in Decision Making: The Case of School Administration

I Concepts.- 1 The School Principalship.- 2 A Focus on Decision Making and Evaluation.- 3 Evaluation in Education.- 4 How Evaluation Can Improve Decision Making in the School Principalship.- II Studies.- 5 Assigning Teachers to Classrooms.- 6 Making Schoolwide Decisions While Interacting with Teachers.- 7 Performing the Role of Teacher Evaluation.- 8 Guiding and Evaluating Teachers on Student Achievement-Based Instructional Objectives.- 9 Guiding Rational Solutions to Academic Problems of Low Achievers.- 10 Coordinating Student Achievement Testing.- III Implications.- 11 Conclusions.- 12 Toward Improvement.- References.

New politics of higher education: Hidden and complex

Public universities in the United States are in a changed political environment, resulting from past enrollment growth and increased budget needs, centralization, the routinization of state-university relations, government budget uncertainty, and the emergence of strong competing claims on state or federal monies. The author argues that centralized government intervention is carried through technocratic approaches that mask the political forces at work. The article discusses characteristics of government intervention such as: buffer groups, formulas and data monopoly. It suggests these technocratic approaches hide the political weakness of the public universities. These, in turn, have been weakened. In conclusion, three new trends are suggested: (1) public universities will seek to do with less government support - that is, the privatization of some American public university services; (2) they will seek to increase governments or societys dependency on what it is the public universities do - that is, making universities more immediately useful to government and society; and (3) they will increasingly organize political coalitions both inside and outside the universities. This last strategy implies greater collaboration between faculty, students and university administrators and between higher education, the public schools and other potential allies.

Book Reviews: Education, Management and Participation: New Directions in Educational Administration

Part 1 Theoretical foundations of educational administration: schools as organizations, educators as managers participatory management in education leadership motivation. Part 2 The practice of participatory school management: solving problems and making decisions planning and managing school finance professional growth and staff development evaluation - teachers, programmes and schools managing school/community relationships collective bargaining and beyond building a participatory organization - change and stability. Appendix: a guide to using the case method.

Book Reviews : Consultants Can Help: The Use of Outside Experts in the U.S. Office of Child Development. James D. Marver (Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath 1979) 226 pp

It is a study of the role of outside consultants and experts in government. Marver has two main themes. First, he wants to study whether the government agencies who use experts are satisfied with their performance. What tasks provide most satisfaction? What characteristics of the role of experts please clients? Second, he wants to say something about government restrictions on the use of outside experts and to suggest some avenues for reform. The book is therefore timely and a positive contribution to a growing literature on experts. It expands our knowledge of the way government agencies perceive these outsiders, what they expect from them, and the extent they like what they buy. Where the book fails is in its focus. It tells us a lot about agency satisfaction with transactions based on purchased expert time, but does not pass judgment on the desirability of these transactions. Agency staff may be delighted because they