The Austin Independent School District (AISD) is now in its third year of study on the effects of a new retention policy adopted in 1981-82. Reviewing the results of the first two years led to the conclusion that traditional methods of studying retention might not be the most appropriate. These evaluations have primarily focused on the impact of…

Presents aids to assist the design and monitoring of natural resource systems. Defines and describes hypergeometric systems; discusses monitoriing objectives and classifies monitoring programs. (MDH)

This paper addresses some of the concerns inherent in evaluating feminists' projects and focuses on three topics: (1) a discussion of some objections raised by feminists about traditional forms of assessment; (2) a description of the strengths and weaknesses of illuminative evaluation as an alternative approach to evaluate feminist programs; and…

Issues concerning students' evaluation of college faculty are discussed. Several views of this process are presented. Having identified relevant variables or paradigms, possible relationships between the variables can be studied (models and theories). The assumptions underlying these paradigms include the following: that students have a right and…

In 1985 and 1986, 24 and 37 schools respectively, were publicly recognized as merit schools under the Design for School Excellence (DSE) program of the Cincinnati (Ohio) Public School system. The increase in merit schools was not accompanied by a large increase in the number of awards made on individual indicators. Rather, the new merit schools…

Discusses current issues in measuring library effectiveness, including rapid technological changes and increasing obsolescence in librarians' competencies; increased pressure for accountability; tools to help libraries become what they determine they should be rather than conforming to national standards; and how to determine the validity and…

Outlines the foundations of the qualitative and quantitative approaches to research and discusses the implications of these two completely different approaches in educational research. Points out they are not complementary as they are separate scientific paradigms.(MD)

This paper reviews two areas of limitations concerning college outcome assessments and argues that while cognitive outcomes may be effectively measured during the students' academic careers, the perceptions of alumni are a necessary component of the assessment of affective outcomes. The limitations that are addressed concern first, determining…

A number of issues involved in the large-scale assessment of science and mathematics education were illustrated during the conduct of two national surveys: the 1977 National Survey of Science, Mathematics, and Social Studies Education and the 1985 National Survey, Science and Mathematics Education. Development of the survey questionnaires started…

A dilemma arises in the attempt to establish procedures for valid assessment of academic learning. Measures of learning with high pedagogical validity often have poor psychometric properties. Conversely, tests that are well-constructed by psychometric standards may succeed in sorting and ordering students or schools, but have little pedagogical…