Concept of Educational Evaluation and Assessment

Tags: assessment | education | evaluation | measurement

GOUTAM ROY

What is the difference between the terms ‘Evaluation’ and ‘Assessment’? Before going to the question, it should be asked that is there really a difference between those. Many academicians think that the main character of the terms is same, just those are used in different situation. On the other hand, lots of people consider those as independent term which have different and unique character. So, a debate is existed in the academic area. I was searching the difference between the terms for long time and recently get two definitions from two sources. I also think the following two definitions are enough for explaining the difference of the terms.

Evaluation is the process of determining whether an item or activity meets specified criteria. It has several distinguishing characteristics relating to focus, methodology, and function. Evaluation mainly assesses the effectiveness of an ongoing programme in achieving its objectives, relies on the standards of project design to distinguish a programme's effects from those of other forces, and aims at programme improvement through a modification of current operations (www.ojp.usdoj.gov/BJA/evaluation/glossary/glossary_e.htm).

On the other hand, a systematic process for determining goals, identifying discrepancies between optimal and actual performance, and establishing priorities for action is called assessment (www.ibstpi.org/glossary.htm). The systematic collection of information about the activities, characteristics, and outcomes of programmes to make judgments, improve effectiveness, and/or inform decisions about future development can be called as assessment.

Author: Research Associate, Research and Evaluation Division, BRAC, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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Shuvra (96.231.5.xxx) 2009-04-12 08:06:39

Goutam da, very basic question. If you know, in education the term evaluation and assessment has another difference, and its the region of the world where they use it. So for example, in USA its more of assessment, while in UK its more evaluation. There are points of difference on how they look at it. So, i guess not only that the term differs across disciplines but also across regions. Also, you dont assess teachers, you evaluate them, but you can both evaluate and assess students. in that sense i would say, in academia, assessment is done with some individualistic authority based on some prior exposure to structured knowledge, and the assessment is made on indicators that had been created based on this expected knowledge gain expressed through learning objectives/competencies. Where
as evaluation is a a process that does not examine an issue with the aim of judging something on specific indicators but not necessarily to have previous structured exposure the individuto knowledge and thereby its regardless of assessing the individual against some learning objective.
But i am just talking from my own opinion. We can really opine more on this a lot

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