The Program Evaluation Standards in International Settings

The Appropriateness of Joint Committee Standards in Non-Western Settings 43South Korea still has a strong central government. Even though it adopted an independentlocal administration system in 1994, critical decisions are still made by the President, arepresentative of the central government. A top-down decision making hierarchy is prevalent inmany social organizations, which is one of vestiges of the Korean military regime. All healthyKorean men have the responsibility of military service for either a term of eighteen or twenty-sixmonths. According to the United Nations in 1997, a reliable mailing and telephone systemspreads to almost every household. The Human Development Index of South Korea is ranked30th out of 174 countries.The Relationship of the College Entrance Exam to the Notion of Evaluation:Evaluation AnxietyThe nature of evaluation practice is markedly different in Korea when compared to the UnitedStates where a variety of evaluation projects are done by every sector of society: government,business corporations and all levels of education for dozens of purposes. Korean educationalevaluation is centered on measurement and testing. The major function of evaluations ineducation is selection and placement. This notion affects the evaluation practice of the entiresociety.The central government or business conglomerates mainly initiate critical evaluationprojects seeking international experts. In many cases they deal with a kind of organizationalchange, in that they need western substantive knowledge and highly advanced techniques.Korean stakeholders are inclined to think that their social positions may be influenced by theproject results, which are frequently shown a kind of organizational change resulting instructural replacement or expansion and cutbacks. Evaluating something itself means thejudgment of value or merit of an object. But the notion of evaluation to Koreans goes beyond thetechnical meaning, that is, Koreans are concerned about the effects of large-scale projectsconducted by western evaluators, and sometimes they feel intimidated simply by beingevaluated. They do not like evaluation. They are inclined to think that they are being measuredin a certain point, rather than being helped by an evaluation.During the past forty years, Korean notion of evaluation is especially related to the fiercecollege entrance examination experience. Most Koreans go through a very painful kind ofevaluation: nationwide college entrance exam after one's secondary education is finished.Academic achievements are evaluated through the exam's total score. Since Koreans believe thatthe social level of a college diploma determines much of his future socioeconomic status, theymake every effort to enter prestigious colleges. Since so many people want to go to college, theadmission rate of 36% in 1998 is fairly low when compared to the number of applicants. Itcauses a phenomenon known as 'exam hell.' College entrance, as determined by the exam scores,have influenced Korean society at large in the formation of eliticism, strong alumni units, orlimited information scope, even though criticism of the excessive competitiveness iscontinuously brought to the attention of the entire nation.