Evaluating Educational Programs

Abstract

This chapter was written by Samuel Ball and originally published as an ETS report in 1979. Ball was one of ETS’s most active program evaluators for 10 years and directed several pacesetting studies, including a large-scale evaluation of the educational effects of Sesame Street. The chapter documents the vigorous program of evaluation research conducted at ETS in the 1960s and 1970s, which helped lay the foundation for this fledgling field. This work developed new viewpoints, techniques, and skills for systematically assessing educational programs and led to the creation of principles for program evaluation that still appear relevant today.