Evaluation and the new rhetoric.pdfVIP

BETWEEN FORUMS Cam@ton Fincllor, Associate Editor for AIR Evaluation and the New Rhetoric In the. 1950s some of us made frequent use of Remmers and Gages (1955) textbook, Educational Measurement and Evaluation. The book gave good impe- tus to measurement and the appraisal of student abilities and achievement but made the right distinctions between measurement and evaluation, The latter as- surned a purpose or an idea of what is good or desirable from the standpoint of the individual or society or both. Only recendy adopted as a technical term, evaluation gained its currency from the revolt of progressive education against the traditional curriculum; it owed much of its technical status to Ralph Tyler. In the preface of his latest book Lee Cronbach acknowledges his indebtedness to Ralph Tyler and his then-unorthodox view of evaluation. Cronbach, now professor emeritus at Stanford, sees his book as a return to his earlier associa- tions with program evaluation and seeks, it would appear, to nail down the wind- blown purposes and procedures of program evaluation in the twilight years of a career that is second in envy only to that of Tylers. Those of us who learned much of our psychological testing from Cronbachs (1949) Essentials and taught the 1960 and 1970 revisions--and who devoured his paradigm-shifting books on decision theory and aptitude/treatment interactions--must surely expect a similar crowning touch to evaluation research. At least one generation of Cronbach ad- mirers will suffer, however, great disappointment. A CONFUSION OF PURPOSES There is an uncertainty in Designing Evaluations of Educational and Social Programs that has never