Altschuld, James W.

(b. 1939, Cleveland, Ohio). Ph.D. Educational Research and Development, M.S. Organic Chemistry, The Ohio State University; B.A. Chemistry, Case Western Reserve University.

[Page 16]A professor of education at The Ohio State University, Altschuld has contributed to the field of evaluation, especially in the areas of needs assessment and the evaluation of science education and technology, and has coauthored influential books on both topics. He has worked collaboratively with Ruth Witkin on an approach to needs assessment, a central construct in evaluation practice. Together they have written two books on needs assessment: Planning and Conducting Needs Assessment: A Practical Guide and From Needs Assessment to Action: Transforming Needs Into Solution Strategies. Along with collaborator David Kumar, Altschuld has developed a model of the evaluation of science education programs, reflected in his edited volume Evaluation of Science and Technology Education at the Dawn of a New Millennium. Altschuld has contributed substantially to evaluation as a profession through his position papers on certification of evaluators and in The Directory of Evaluation Training Programs, published in1995.

He considers Ruth Altschuld, his wife, and Belle Ruth Witkin, a colleague, to be the major intellectual influences in his life.

Altschuld received the American Evaluation Association Alva and Gunnar Myrdal Evaluation Practice Award in 2002; in 2000, The Ohio State University College of Education Award for Research and Scholarship; in 1997, the Best Program Evaluation Research Award (with Kumar) from the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Evaluation; in1990, the Evaluation Recognition Award from the Ohio Program Evaluators' Group; and in 1988, The Ohio State University Distinguished Teaching Award.

Altschuld is a reluctant but regular jogger and a devoted grandfather to Andrew and Lindsay.