A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY ON THE POLICY AND PRACTICE OF PROGRAM EVALUATION FOR TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION INSTITUTES AT HIGHER EDUCATION LEVEL IN TAIWAN

In Taiwan, the annual program evaluation on the technical and vocational education institutes at higher education level has been conducted by the Ministry of Education since 1975. The results of educational program evaluation system consequently provide consistent crucial information regarding the technical institutes for both educational policy-makers and university administrators during the decision-making process on the governmental financial budgets, project grants to the institutes, Technical institutes are also benefited from the investigative evaluation to improve their educational quality and school administration based on the evaluation outcomes. Therefore, this program evaluation policy and practice is proved to effectively identify the efficiency and effectiveness of the target institutes.

The CIPP (context, input, process, product) evaluation model is mainly employed for the program evaluation practice on technical institutes in order to investigate and ensure the quality and coverage of vocational programs. Also, the CIPP model is slightly adjusted on target index and contents to specifically reveal educational efficacy and achievement by focusing on the external and internal resource application, educational achievement, and peel competition.
This paper primarily addresses the program evaluation policy and practice for Vocational Technical Education Institutes at Higher Education level in Taiwan. Particularly, this paper discusses the major evaluation contents, standard index, and the executive processes of this evaluation system employed in Taiwan. In addition, discussed issues cover the effects of this evaluation practice on the quality improvement and consequent contributions to the vocational education institutes, even to the general public.

Based on the retrospective analyses on this program evaluation policy conducted in the last over twenty years, 18 institutes in every year, several crucial findings are recognized. These analyses discover evaluation consequences are published in internet website in order for the general public to access for further understanding the specific characteristics and future visions of the technical institutes. This service also enables students to select their continuing studies in appropriate institutes and also helps industries to recruit right personnel. Furthermore, the practice of program evaluation has already promoted targeted institutes in self-inspection and quality improvement. Several critical reflections and suggestions are finally provided in this paper.