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Discretionary assessment practices: Professional judgments and principals' actions

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Abstract

Principals state that they are continuously engaged in making personnel and programmatic evaluations based on their professional judgments and perceptual measures. Yet, this perspective has been missing from research frameworks conceived by evaluation specialists. The descriptive statements of principals in this study reflect normative expectations and structural constraints, combined with idiosyncratic and discretionary actions. This study attempts to demonstrate how Dewey's general logic of experience helps to explain the epistemological underpinnings of administrators' evaluative perceptions and professional judgments.

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Bogotch, I.E., Taylor, D.L. Discretionary assessment practices: Professional judgments and principals' actions. Urban Rev 25, 289–306 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01111852

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