What if educational programs designed curriculum with the end in mind, teaching and assessing only the knowledge and skills necessary for success in the workplace and broader life applications? Competency-Based Education (CBE) provides an answer to questions such as this one that key stakeholders such as employers, learners, parents, and educators…

Training School Principals as Talent Developers: An International Perspective focuses on how to prepare school principals to lead their schools by training and supporting teachers in their craft. The main goal of schools is improving teaching and learning in order to maximize students' potential to be college ready and career ready. Principals…

Based on Penn State's popular "Innovation Insights" series, this book brings together in one handy reference nearly a decade of tried and true insights into continuous quality improvements in higher education. Their five-step model for integrating planning, assessment, and improvement moves plans off the shelf and into the weekly and daily…

This book presents an approach to developing performance assessments. It begins with four steps for "Info In" and moves to four "Info Out" modes through which students can make their content understanding explicit for evaluation purposes. The first chapter is an overview of performance assessment in the classroom. Chapter 2 discusses the "Info In"…

This collection of best practices shares how 18 higher education institutions across the country have successfully evaluated and redesigned their student financial services programs to improve services to students and their parents and find cost savings for the institution. This volume illustrates how other institutions have successfully tackled…

To say that assessments must be authentic, dynamic, fluid, and formative is not to say that normative, standardized evaluations have no place in the overall assessment scheme. What is needed is a combination and balance of assessments. The tri-assessment model promotes using traditional assessments along with portfolio and performance assessments.…

This book examines the current trends in K-12 curriculum and instruction. It shows how the trends interrelate and provides a higher order, comprehensive model for curriculum reform. The model is based on critical, content-based concepts. Chapter 1 describes the complexity of the change process and illustrates dilemmas encountered in school-based…

This collection provides a new perspective for understanding what assessment can do to promote continuous improvement in education. The concepts of systems thinking, continued learning, mental models, shared vision, and team building are highlighted in the selections, which include: (1) "A Systems Approach to Assessing School Culture"…

For over thirty years, portfolios have been used to help adult learners gain recognition for their prior learning and take greater control of their educational experiences. The portfolio has become a distinctive means of assessing such learning, serving as a meaningful alternative to conventional papers and standardized testing. This book provides…

Instruction based on learning styles has received little attention in the recent reform efforts in mathematics education. The purpose of this book is to address the improvement of mathematics instruction through sensitivity to learning styles. The introduction discusses the scope and rationale of the book. Chapter 2 documents the need for…

This book addresses the link between student learning of mathematics, the teaching method adopted in the mathematics classroom, and the assessment procedures used to determine and measure student knowledge. Fifteen chapters address issues that include a review of different models of mathematics learning and assessment practices, three contrasting…

Recent documents like the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics'"Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics" have described coming changes in the mathematics curriculum and evaluation. Operating from the point of view that instruction and assessment are closely linked, that good teachers constantly assess students…

This book presents a preschool framework that integrates literacy activities into content area lessons while embedding instruction within adult-child social interactions and realistic, playful activities tailored to each child's individual needs. Chapter 1 of the book delineates the theory and rationale behind the framework, and outlines essential…

This book provides information on the assessment of students with disabilities. It is divided into six major parts. Part 1, "Introduction to Assessment: Issues and Concerns," discusses the historical, philosophical, and legal foundations of assessment, introduces psychological assessments, and proposes an assessment model. Part 2, "Informal…

This handbook presents the perspectives of more than 60 leading authorities on the study and practice of adult and continuing education. The following are among the papers included: "A Selective History of Adult Education Handbooks" (A.L. Wilson, E.R. Hayes); "The Concept of Critically Reflective Practice" (Stephen D.…