Evaluating Educational Programs

The major paradigm in educational evaluation employs a hypothetico-deductive approach in analyzing programs. It isfelt that a holistic-inductive approach, employing qualitative methods, may also be of use. Many have referred to this latter approach as an alternate research paradigm. More important, the use of both approaches in assessing educationalprograms may prove to be both effective and efficient. This article presents and describes a comparative design for the evaluation of educational programs. The design employs both quantitative and qualitative methods to gather information about the characteristics and consequences of a program. The dualtrack design provides separate results that may then be compared to produce a complete product of the evaluation effort. The application of this model to the evaluation of two programs is also presented and discussed.