Evaluating Occupational Education in Massachusetts and New York

The Massachusetts and New York Evaluation Service Center for Occupational Education at Amherst, Massachusetts, seeks to develop a mechanism to provide a continuous feedback of program evaluation information to local education agencies which offer occupational education. Program evaluation is concerned with the definition of outcomes in terms of behavioral objectives, the measurement of the extent to which objectives are achieved and the feedback of information to those responsible for the administration of occupational education at state and local levels. The three operational components of the Center are the Behavioral Objective Development Component, the Training Component and the Testing Component. The services of the Center stress a model of curriculum development which is decentralized and diversified, while at the same time providing a framework within which a centralized and systematic evaluation of goals can be undertaken.