From the beginning the Evaluation Staff worked intimately with the Thirty Schools. Its task was to help develop effective ways to find out what changes were produced in students hy their school experiences. Let it be emphasized that this was done co-operatively. Teachers ill the schools participated in formulating every plan and in devising every test. Always evaluation was related to purposes which teachers considered important, and always the product of technical test-construction. was subjected to the searching criticism of unusually competent teachers.

The director and members of the Evaluation Staff began their work by analyzing the purposes that the schools had listed when they entered the Study. It was found that the schools were concerned with these ten major types of objectives:

1. The development of effective methods of thinking
2. The cultivation of useful work habits and study skills
3. The inculcation of social attitudes
4. The acquisition of a wide range of significant interests
5. The development of increased appreciation of music, art, literature, and other aesthetic experiences
6. The development of social sensitivity
7. The development of better personal-social adjustment
8. he acquisition of important information
9. The development of physical health
10. The development of a consistent philosophy of life

The schools were saying to the Evaluation Staff, "We do not know surely whether our work is producing the results we desire. We need to know. Can you help us find out whether or not our efforts produce in students effective methods of thinking; a wide range of significant interests; increased appreciation of music, art, and literature; social sensitivity; and a consistent philosophy of life? If our teaching is not bringing about these results, we shall change our curriculum and teaching methods in the hope that we can accomplish our purposes. Then we shall examine results again."

The answer was, "We will try, but you must work with us. The task is difficult. Many technicians have said that it is impossible to devise reliable measures of progress toward such intangible objectives. We think it can be done. It will take time. The first instruments we construct may not be satisfactory. If you will try them out in your classes, we will discover wherein the tests are faulty and try again. We hope that eventually we shall be able to provide instruments of evaluation that will be useful to you in appraising the results of your work."

| Previous Page | Top of Page | Next Page | | 8 Year Home | Chapter 4 Home | Index | Email Comment |