The USOE 2005 Summative Evaluation Report reads more like a commentary than an evaluation, and is very poorly executed. Data analyses are not conveyed in any meaningful forms or visualizations. Numerous spelling and grammar errors persist. The report doesn’t seem to address any particular objectives or self-defined goals in each program, and is highly disorganized and difficult to follow.
The data analysis for Everyday Math contains excellent visuals. A valid point is raised that performance data in education is difficult to evaluate, since there is often not a control group. Both the parent and teacher surveys cover the most pertinent aspects involved in the program, and are in accordance with the National Mathematics Advisory Panel’s report in Appendix B. However, the recommendation to pilot alternatives to Everyday Math is not necessarily the next logical step based on the evidence. The evaluation consists primarily of attitude assessments, rather than performance assessments. There are multiple reasons why a program would fail, and Everyday Math’s problem might simply be due to improper training among the teachers, a factor which wasn’t considered in the report. The Executive Summary itself isn’t necessarily supported by the text, and at best refers to vague references to math scores consistently improving over time, and the lack of evidence that Everyday Math leads to better performance.
The Technology in Teacher Education—Nevada: Project TITE-N report contains a diverse selection of data which appears to adequately cover the pertinent topics relevant to pre-service teachers. Measurement tools are very well-documented, and referenced frequently throughout the text, particularly in the informative visual displays of the data. There is, however, the necessity to familiarize oneself with the abbreviations before reading the data analyses charts. Figure 10 contains colors that are too close to distinguish, and Figure 14 contains blank items in the legend. Overall, the evaluation was well-done, with dissimilar groups being surveyed to ensure breadth of applicability, and with conclusions that accurately match the data portrayed.