Category talk:Educational assessment and evaluation

Assessment vs. Evaluation

The distinction between evaluation and assessment is controversial. In the linked section it's stated, "In the field of evaluation, there is some degree of disagreement in the distinctions often made between the terms 'evaluation' and 'assessment.' Some practitioners would consider these terms to be interchangeable, while others contend that evaluation is broader than assessment and involves making judgments about the merit or worth of something (an evaluand) or someone (an evaluee)."

In neither case is evaluation considered to be a subset of assessment. It seems to me that this category would be better renamed to "Educational evaluation" as a subcategory of Category:Evaluation. Rfrisbie^talk 17:29, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Hi Rfrisbie. I agree that there is not consensus on the relationship between assessment and evaluation in education. I tend to think of assessment as the broader category, but many do not. My categorizations were probably too hasty. As a solution, I propose that we create a high level category called "educational assessment and evaluation" that would include program evaluation (in education), teacher evaluation, assessment methods, grading systems, school rankings, etc. It could have subcategories for some of these areas. Nesbit 17:41, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Even though the evaluation category is just two levels below Category:Fundamental, I can understand why you might see "assessment" as a broader category than "evaluation," and I can live with that. I would see the "new" category as being a subcat of both Category:Education and Category:Evaluation. You might see others. There will be some circular references if things stay the same, e.g., Evaluation in a subcategory of its own title category. Things like that can be worked out later. At this point, I think we would need to do something like a Wikipedia:Categories for deletion - Speedy renaming, since we can't just do a "move" to a new category. If that's okay with you, would you be willing to post it? Rfrisbie^talk 17:58, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Before we settle on this, we should probably consider which subcategories related to assessment and evaluation should appear under Category:Education. I mentioned above one possibility -- only one assessment and evaluation subcategory at the top level. But maybe better to break it out into something like "assessment and evaluation of learners", "educational program evaluation", "teacher evaluation", "school evaluation". We have to reduce the size of the education category, so I'd prefer to avoid more than a few such subcategories. Nesbit 18:11, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

The Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation has three sets of standards, one for programs, projects, and materials, one for personnel, and one for students. The fundamental principles and methods for these three types of educational evaluation have more in common than they have differences. I prefer one high-level assessment and evaluation category with the three subcategories related to the standards, plus any sub-sub categories. Something like school evaluation or accreditation is related to the Program Standards and could go under that category. I would call the three subcategories something like "Educational program assessment and evaluation," "Educational personnel assessment and evaluation" and "Student assessment and evaluation." Rfrisbie^talk 18:54, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

Your idea seems right to me. So it would involve a speedy deletion and renaming of this "Educational assessment" category? I'm not sure how to do it and won't have much more time today. Go ahead if you can. I'll try to pop in and see if I can help later. Nesbit 19:38, 23 February 2006 (UTC)

The nomination for a name change is posted. Follow the link at the top of this page to weigh in. Rfrisbie^talk 05:25, 24 February 2006 (UTC)