Evaluating Education

This is a digital archive of sigificant case studies undertaken by members of the Cambridge Conferences on Education Evaluation, which ran from 1972-2004. It includes source documents from the case studies, along with the transcripts of interviews carried out in 2005-2006 with their authors.

The archive was originally constructed as part of the Economic and Social Research Council's Qualitative Demonstrator Scheme (QUADS). As digital library platforms have evolved, the archive has been hosted and developed, first as part of the ESRC technology-enhanced learning project Ensemble: Semantic Technologies for the Enhancement of Case-Based Learning (2008-2012) before finding a permanent home at Camtree: the Cambridge Teacher Research Exchange.

Featured Content

Collection

Cambridge Accountability Project (CAP)

Case Studies of the ways UK secondary schools accounted to parents, employers and school governors in the face of falling rolls, increasing parental choice and the emerging education market in the UK. The collection contains several of the CAP case studies in near-complete form, together with excerpts from other studies and a report offering a cross-case analysis
View the items in Cambridge Accountability Project (CAP)

Collection

Buddy Evaluation: The Impact of Educational Technologies in the USA

Cynthia Cole's 1993 study of the impact of new technologies on families in the rural Midwest. Social dynamics were greatly changed in some families, and especially in the case of the Waxman Family which is described here.
View the items in Buddy Evaluation: The Impact of Educational Technologies in the USA
Collection

Bread and Dreams, a Case Study of Bilingual Schooling in the USA

The 1982 evaluation of bilingual schooling in Boston commissioned by the Ford Foundation against a background of heated nationwide debate about the value and cost of mandated bilingual education.
View the items in Bread and Dreams, a Case Study of Bilingual Schooling in the USA

Archive Collections

Collection

General Cambridge Conference Documents
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Collection

Summerhill School vs Department for Education and Skills

Successive inspections by the government agency OfSTED (Office for Standards in Education) led to a notice of closure being issued by the Secretary of State in 1999. Ian Stronach carried out an evaluation of the inspection process which was used as part of the evidence at the Appeal Tribunal.
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Collection

Nurse Education and Training in Ireland: Independent External Evaluation

Helen Simons' 1998 evaluation of a national innovation in the Republic of Ireland: the shift from an 'apprenticeship' style of nurse education and training to a university diploma concurrent with registration as a nurse.
View the items in Nurse Education and Training in Ireland: Independent External Evaluation
Collection

Hathaway Primary School, New South Wales: A Digital Case Study

'Hathaway' is a multimedia case study developed to provide a means for seeing classroom processes in the context of school, system and community issues. Originally published in 1995 to support professional development at Deakin University in Australia, it has now been used by over 1000 students.
View the items in Hathaway Primary School, New South Wales: A Digital Case Study
Collection

Buddy Evaluation: The Impact of Educational Technologies in the USA

Cynthia Cole's 1993 study of the impact of new technologies on families in the rural Midwest. Social dynamics were greatly changed in some families, and especially in the case of the Waxman Family which is described here.
View the items in Buddy Evaluation: The Impact of Educational Technologies in the USA
Collection

Changing Mathematics Teaching in the Elementary School

This 1992 case study was an attempt by Jack and Elizabeth Easley to understand a novel approach to teaching mathematics to young children developed in Japan: ideas that they tried to introduce to Elementary teachers in the US through an action research network.
View the items in Changing Mathematics Teaching in the Elementary School
Collection

Harper School: A Housing Project Elementary School

Bob Stake's 1992 case study of a Chicago elementary school: part of a multi-case study of school responses to school improvement initiatives. Later published in Stake's book 'The Art of Case Study Research' (1995)
View the items in Harper School: A Housing Project Elementary School
Collection

A Musical Education: Innovation in the Conservatoire

Saville Kushner's study from the mid 1980's of the Guildhall School of Music's innovatory community education programme
View the items in A Musical Education: Innovation in the Conservatoire
Collection

PRAISE: Pilot Records of Achievement in Schools Evaluation

Case studies of 22 schools and an a cross-case analysis from the pilot 'Records of Achievement' initiative in the UK in the late 1980's.
View the items in PRAISE: Pilot Records of Achievement in Schools Evaluation
Collection

Quieting Reform: Social Science and Social Action in an Urban Youth Program

Bob Stake's 1986 influential demonstration of his own 'responsive model' of evaluation. Unusual in that it was an evaluation of an evaluation - of the 'Cities in Schools' federal programme in the USA.
View the items in Quieting Reform: Social Science and Social Action in an Urban Youth Program
Collection

Bread and Dreams, a Case Study of Bilingual Schooling in the USA

The 1982 evaluation of bilingual schooling in Boston commissioned by the Ford Foundation against a background of heated nationwide debate about the value and cost of mandated bilingual education.
View the items in Bread and Dreams, a Case Study of Bilingual Schooling in the USA
Collection

SAFARI: Success and Failure and Recent Innovation

SAFARI was originally a set of evaluative case studies of four major curriculum projects and the effects of these projects through four school case studies in one UK Local Education Authority, focused on the main curriculum concerns in each school. It also served as a focus for the development of new evaluation practices and led to the publication of the 'SAFARI Papers', some of which are included in this collection.
View the items in SAFARI: Success and Failure and Recent Innovation

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