California has embarked on a major new wave of curriculum reform with the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the new English Language Development (ELD) standards, and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The adoption of the CCSS builds a legacy of standards-based education reform in California that began with the…

This document discusses the importance of maintaining the quality of DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) occupational analyses and presents a 2-page checklist detailing DACUM quality performance criteria. The introduction to the checklist discusses various "infractions" discovered during an analyses of some curriculum/program developers'…

This booklet begins by examining the role played by evaluation in course and curriculum development, and then shows how the basic "error elimination" approach advocated by the philosopher Karl Popper can be used as a basis for the on-going evaluation of instructional systems. Next, two contrasting paradigms of evaluation are described,…

Formative evaluation is an evaluation done with the intention of identifying potential for improvement. This handbook provides techniques and ideas for discovering how students are learning and how much students are learning from their experiences in the classroom. Surveys, questionnaires, observations, class discussions, journals, and…

Since 1980 the Memphis City Schools Law-Related Education Curriculum Project (LRE) has identified and organized concepts in law content into curriculum guides suitable for elementary and secondary education teachers. Lesson plans include instructional activities and suggestions to teachers for infusing the law-related materials into the standard…

This paper describes a higher education assessment process of the general education program at Longwood College, Virginia. A list of the attributes of a good general education program is presented. This is followed by a description of Longwood College's assessment methodology starting with the development of a list of goals that were considered as…

Honors programs are a viable part of the community college response to the challenges of the late 1980's. The growth in the two-year college memberships in Phi Theta Kappa and the National Collegiate Honors Council suggests that greater attention is being given to the academically able students at the two-year college. A rationale for developing…

Competency testing is only one component of competency-based education (CBE); the others are: educational objectives, instructional process, remedial instruction, and program evaluation/reconceptualization. To implement only competency testing may result in disillusionment with the entire concept of CBE, which seeks to improve programs, not fail…

An experimental group (n=6) of student dentists received discrimination training and self-evaluation exercises on 4 waxing projects and 4 handpiece projects over 13 hours. An equivalent "conventional" group (n=7) received verbal feedback with models on 7 waxing projects over 13 hours. The experimental group outperformed the conventional…

Discusses the successes and problems in creating major changes in an undergraduate curriculum and addresses the issues of consistency in management, strengthened advising, revision of the majors' handbook, improvement in professional development skills, insufficient content, sequence of skill progression, uniformity in skill teaching, and faculty…

Designed to help school administrators and board members promote instructional excellence, this publication reports survey results involving over 35 school districts in Northern California, Utah, and Nevada engaged in instructional improvement efforts. Specifically, the report describes alternative strategies used to organize and manage three…

The use of formative evaluation in a new set of materials for French language instruction is discussed. The materials, entitled "In the French Body," use videodisk technology to teach both verbal and nonverbal aspects of communication. The technical and pedagogical design of the materials are described, difficulties of using controlled…

The Learning in Science Project (Primary)--LISP(P)--developed a handbook for a unit on "floating and sinking". The handbook contains information about ideas children and scientists have about the topic and several investigations and projects designed to help teachers move children gradually from intuitive explanations toward those which…

Reports on a case study of formative evaluation of the materials and procedures used in a distance-learning French-language course. Identifies and evaluates key teaching design features of the draft audiovisual and print packages. Discusses teaching design in relation to revisions made to the course materials. (CFR)

Originally designed to serve 400 employees, the Mott Community College (MCC) Workplace Literacy Project provided instruction in basic workplace skills to 566 employees from 20 companies. The cost was 2 percent lower than projected. All participants were assessed and counseled on the basis of the assessment tests. Individualized training plans were…