Participatory Evaluation In Education Studies Of Evaluation Use And Organizational Learning

This text focuses on "participatory evaluation", an approach that involves teachers and educational administrators as partners with researchers in a broad range of school and school system-based evaluation tasks with the explicit goal of using such data to improve practice.; Participatory evaluation is a natural, suitable and effective approach to school improvement and educational change, and has been practiced by the editors and several colleagues for many years. Though participatory applied research strategies are growing in popularity, there is a paucity of documented empirical support for the approach. presenting a set of original empirical studies and a critical analysis of them this book will add to our knowledge about variations in the approach, conditions that support it, its viability within the culture of schools and school systems and its likely impact defined in terms of the use of research data and organisational learning.; The book will be useful for educational practitioners interested in critically evaluating the potential of participatory evaluation as an integral part of their own approach to educational reform. It will also clarify an agenda for research to further our understanding of the organisational benefits of this type of collaborative systematic enquiry.

Part 1 Why Participatory Evaluation?: The Case for Participatory Evaluation: Theory, Research and Practice, J. Bradley Cousins and Lorna M. Earl. Part 2 Participatory Evaluation in Schools and School Systems: District- wide Evaluation of School Improvement: A System Partners Approach, Lorna M. Earl; A Participatory Approach to District-level Program Evaluation: The Dynamics of Internal Evaluation, Clay Lafleur; Assessing Program Needs Using Participatory Evaluation: A Comparison of High and Marginal Success Cases, J. Bradley Cousins; Participation in Evaluation of Funded School Improvements: Effects and Supporting Conditions, Linda E. Lee and J. Bradley Cousins; Involving Practitioners in Evaluation Studies: How Viable is Collaborative Evaluation in Schools?, Jean A. King; The Many Modes of Participatory Evaluation, Michael Huberman. Part 3 Educational Participatory Evaluation: Variations in Form: Inviting Collaboration: Insights into Researcher-School Community Partnerships, Lyn M. Shulha and Robert J. Wilson; Using Participatory Evaluation in an International Context, Donna M. Mertens, Terry R. Berkeley and Susan D. Lopez. Part 4 Themes and Conclusions: Participatory Evaluation in Education: What Do We Know? Where Do We Go?, J. Bradley Cousins and Lorna M. Earl.