Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation

The Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation is a coalition of major professional associations formed in 1975 to help improve the quality of evaluation. The Joint Committee published three sets of standards for evaluations. The Personnel Evaluation Standards was published in 1988, The Program Evaluation Standards (2nd edition)  was published in 1994, and The Student Evaluation Standards  was published in 2003.

The Joint Committee is housed at The Evaluation Center, Western Michigan University, as a private nonprofit organization. It is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Standards approved by ANSI become American National Standards. In addition to setting standards in evaluation, it also is involved in reviewing and updating its published standards (every five years); training policymakers, evaluators, and educators in the use of the standards; and serving as a clearinghouse on evaluation standards literature.

Each publication presents and elaborates a set of standards for use in a variety of educational settings. The standards provide guidelines for designing, implementing, assessing and improving the identified form of evaluation. Each of the standards has been placed in one of four fundamental categories to promote educational evaluations that are proper, useful, feasible, and accurate.

The Personnel Evaluation Standards

 * The propriety standards require that evaluations be conducted legally, ethically, and with due regard for the welfare of evaluatees and clients involved in.
 * The utility standards are intended to guide evaluations so that they will be informative, timely, and influential.
 * The feasibility standards call for evaluation systems that are as easy to implement as possible, efficient in their use of time and resources, adequately funded, and viable from a number of other standpoints.
 * The accuracy standards require that the obtained information be technically accurate and that conclusions be linked logically to the data.

The Program Evaluation Standards

 * The utility standards are intended to ensure that an evaluation will serve the information needs of intended users.
 * The feasibility standards are intended to ensure that an evaluation will be realistic, prudent, diplomatic, and frugal.
 * The propriety standards are intended to ensure that an evaluation will be conducted legally, ethically, and with due regard for the welfare of those involved in the evaluation, as well as those affected by its results.
 * The accuracy standards are intended to ensure that an evaluation will reveal and convey technically adequate information about the features that determine worth or merit of the program being evaluated.

The Student Evaluation Standards

 * The Propriety standards help ensure that student evaluations are conducted lawfully, ethically, and with regard to the rights of students and other persons affected by student evaluation.
 * The Utility standards promote the design and implementation of informative, timely, and useful student evaluations.
 * The Feasibility standards help ensure that student evaluations are practical; viable; cost-effective; and culturally, socially, and politically appropriate.
 * The Accuracy standards help ensure that student evaluations will provide sound, accurate, and credible information about student learning and performance.

Sponsoring Organizations
The Joint Committee includes sixteen Sponsoring Organizations that reflect a balance of primarily client practitioner and evaluation technical specialist perspectives. These organizations appoint and sponsor a member of the Joint Committee. Each Sponsoring Organization is kept informed of the work of the Joint Committee and is afforded an opportunity to contribute to the standard-setting process. Sponsoring Organizations include the following:


 * American Association of School Administrators (AASA)
 * American Counseling Association (ACA)
 * American Educational Research Association (AERA)
 * American Evaluation Association (AEA)
 * American Psychological Association (APA)
 * Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
 * Canadian Evaluation Society (CES)
 * Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE)
 * Consortium for Research on Educational Accountability and Teacher Evaluation (CREATE)
 * Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO)
 * National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP)
 * National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP)
 * National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME)
 * National Education Association (NEA)
 * National Legislative Program Evaluation Society (NLPES)
 * National School Boards Association (NSBA)

Notes and references

 * 1)  Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation
 * 2)  Western Michigan University Evaluation Center
 * 3)  Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation. (1988). The Personnel Evaluation Standards: How to Assess Systems for Evaluating Educators. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
 * 4)  Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation. (1994). The Program Evaluation Standards, 2nd Edition. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
 * 5)  Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation. (2003).  The Student Evaluation Standards: How to Improve Evaluations of Students. Newbury Park, CA: Corwin Press.