ABSTRACT
In education evaluation is usually concerned with new developments, and these can range from the radical to the marginal. Teachers evaluate these impressionistically. The criteria used for judging success may be ill defined, but are close to those used by researchers. It should be possible to use experience gained in evaluation to help teachers. For most changes in the organisation of learning that is all that is possible, for the job has to go on. But some aspects of learning are too important to leave to impressions, and some investment in evaluation will be worthwhile in all cases. Much energy has been used producing evaluations of major projects without anything very conclusive emerging. Authors still do not know how successful the Educational Priority Area action research following the Plowden Report was; and despite the massive investment involved, the evaluations of the US Head Start programme were inconclusive.
