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Multilateral Evaluation: a case study of the national evaluation of records of achievement (PRAISE) project *
Author(s) -
Broadfoot Patricia
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
british educational research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.171
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1469-3518
pISSN - 0141-1926
DOI - 10.1080/0141192920180303
Subject(s) - praise , general partnership , strengths and weaknesses , government (linguistics) , set (abstract data type) , milestone , public relations , political science , management science , sociology , psychology , computer science , economics , law , social psychology , linguistics , philosophy , archaeology , programming language , history
The paper describes the evolution of a multilateral evaluation strategy within the PRAISE project. The account describes how the approach started with an initial commitment to ‘meta‐evaluation’ as a means of cross‐validating emerging data and its interpretation, but gradually evolved into a more explicit partnership where the overall research design now depends on the integration of both levels of evaluation. Having presented the case study, the paper uses it to help identify key issues in multilateral evaluation. These include: the need for a common set of ethical guidelines and the closely related issue of working practices and access to data; the issue of integrating the different purposes and audiences of different levels of evaluation; the role of funding agencies and, particularly, central government, in initiating such multilateral programmes. More generally the paper explores vertical versus horizontal models of collaboration and their implications for different episte‐mologies of educational research and evaluation. It concludes with an appraisal of the overall strengths and weaknesses of multilateral evaluation which may be identified at this relatively early stage of its development.