A 1950 Census of Evaluation Practices.

The article reports on a 1950 census of current practices being followed in elementary school evaluation in the U.S. During the past academic year, in which the "census" was taken, a group of educators in the United States and Hawaii received personal letters in which they were asked to send the article author copies of elementary school evaluation instruments they had at hand and to indicate where additional instruments could be obtained. Public school systems, private and campus schools, institutions of higher education, professional organizations and state departments were among the 200 sources to which inquiries ultimately were directed. By May 1950, some 200 pieces of printed material had been received and processed. While the sampling obtained cannot be defended as completely representative it probably is a reasonably good reflection of materials in current use. To be even more explicit, instruments in circulation which were contributed as evaluative devices tended to be achievement tests, means of rating teachers, check lists for use in judging instructional practices and related items such as material resources, hand-books setting forth criteria, or widely divergent devices for studying children.