FACT SHEET  <pdf version>

 

Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation

ISBN 1531-7714

 

Updated  02/29/2008

 

Practical Assessment, Research, & Evaluation (PARE) is the most widely-read, scholarly journal in the assessment field. Since November 13, 1999 when the journal went on-line and the articles were available free over the internet, the 188 titles in this journal have been retrieved more than 5,290,000 times. Each of the 20 most popular articles has been downloaded more than 60,000 times. Approximately 3,000 articles in PARE are downloaded everyday.

 

Purpose

 

The purpose of PARE is to provide education professionals access to refereed articles that can have a positive impact on assessment, research, evaluation, and teaching practice, especially at the local education agency (LEA) level. 

 

Content

 

Manuscripts published in PARE are scholarly syntheses of research and ideas about issues and practices in education. They are designed to help members of the community keep up-to-date with effective methods, trends and research developments. While they are most often prepared for practitioners, such as teachers, administrators, and assessment personnel who work in schools and school systems, PARE articles can target other audiences, including researchers, policy makers, parents, and students.

 

Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation publishes the following types of papers

 

·        Overviews serve as an introduction to a topic.

·        Fact Sheets which provide current information of a factual nature related to a topic.

·        Issue Papers which define and describe a controversial topic.

·        Practice Applications which provide specific, concrete examples of how practitioners can apply research results in practical settings.

·        Research Findings which present the current status of research in an area.

·        Synopses of Synthesis Papers which summarize an existing review and synthesis publication.

 

Two key questions in the review will be whether the results generalize and whether the results are likely to alter someone's practice. Thus, PARE does not accept evaluations of local programs. PARE also does not accept validity studies of test instruments. PARE is not interested in derivations, but rather practical applications.

 

Selectivity

 

In 2006, PARE received 70 submissions and published 11 manuscripts (15.7%). In 2007, we anticipate PARE received 92 submissions and publish 19 manuscripts (20.6%). Blind versions of each submission are reviewed by at least two peers. About 90% of those that are accepted are provisionally accepted pending additional information or edits.   

 

Readership

 

Tables 1 and 2 show the percentage of PARE readership by role based on a user survey conducted in September 2007 with 2,880 respondents. PARE is reaching a wide audience. Not only is the large college student audience reading PARE, but large numbers of civil servants,  researchers, and K-12 staff are also reading the journal.

 

 

Table 1: Who is reading PARE?
Role	Percent
Researcher/Prof	21.2
Researcher	12.2
College Professor	9.0
K-12 Teacher/Admin	31.6
K-12 Teacher	25.0
K-12 Librarian	0.9
K-12 Staff	2.3
K-12 Administrator	3.4
College Students	36.3
Undergraduate Student	15.0
Graduate Student	21.3
Other	11.0
Parent	2.2
Test Developer	1.6
Other	7.2

 

Table 2: Where PARE Readers work.
Employment	Percent
K-12 District	39.9
Higher Education	5.8
Government	27.6
Test Company	1.2
Consulting	2.6
Other	23.0

 

 

 

Why are people reading PARE?

 

Table 3, based on the same survey, shows the reasons given for reading PARE. Notably large percentages of the readership are reading PARE as background material for their own research (i.e. class assignment and research report preparation) and out of professional interest.

 

 

Table 3: Reason for reading PARE
Purpose	Percent
Background for policy making	5.1
Class assignment	36.4
Research report preparation	18.8
Professional interest	17.6
Personal interest	6.8
Other	5.1
Find teaching resources	10.2