This book presents a comprehensive conceptual framework for school evaluation, and evaluation methods that can be used within the framework of the school for the benefit of students, teachers, school administrators and parents. It is based on concepts and ideas originally developed in the area of program evaluation and combining internal and external evaluation, it provides a common ground for school evaluation, including student assessment, program evaluation, teacher appraisal and school review. It is a book for schools, and for educators, parents, policy makers, and professional evaluators who believe in schools, and consider schools to be the main component of the educational system. The book consists of three major parts. In the first part the concept of school-based evaluation is being discussed in the way it is perceived throughout the book. The second part of the book deals with evaluation methods that could be useful to schools in evaluating students, programs, instructional materials, teachers and the school as a whole. The third part of the book focuses on the organizational context of school evaluation. It includes two chapters - one related to internal organizational problems, which need to be resolved in order to institutionalize an effective school evaluation system, while the other deals with the meaning of evaluation as a basis for a dialogue, and the need to develop such new discourse for evaluation in general, and even more so for school-based evaluation.
