The "Student Assessment Inventory for School Districts" supports a process to evaluate the assessments students currently take and then determine the minimum testing necessary to serve essential diagnostic, instructional and accountability purposes. The process should also lead to actions that ensure that every district-mandated…

The purpose of this paper is to inform the community about teacher appraisal methods in the School District of Philadelphia, outline the difficulties of the current system, and suggest approaches that would strengthen the teacher appraisal process. The authors gathered their information over three months in mid-2009 from multiple sources:…

Notes that, although informal comments by teachers regarding building principals and other reading leaders are important, formal feedback from a survey or questionnaire helps to objectify the evaluation process and to provide principals with a more complete picture. Presents a survey for teacher evaluation of reading leaders. Offers suggestions…

Measures of teacher concerns such as the Concerns-Based Adoption Model, a conceptualization of the way concerns of individual teachers change as they become familiar with and involved in new programs, can be helpful in inservice training for teachers of gifted students. Implications for inservice include the conclusion that change is a personal…

Teachers' attitudes and nonverbal messages about standardized testing can affect students' test scores. This article presents a four-question test to help teachers determine their attitudes toward standardized testing, then offers suggestions on how to get rid of excess baggage before approaching the tests and explains the importance of…

Contends that high stakes tests provide no useful or timely information to help teachers accomplish assessment goals, and they encourage an interactional climate that can undermine them. Outlines how assessments can improve learning. Concludes that since assessments of children, as enacted in classrooms, are part of the intellectual environment…

Performance legitimacy exists when leadership traits valued by subordinates are observed in leaders. This article discusses six facets of leadership that can be measured to determine this legitimacy and tells how a performance legitimacy profile can test the congruence between teachers' and an administrator's evaluations of the administrator's…

Teacher self-assessment programs have become increasingly popular with the advent of ideas concerning behavior modification. Several teacher self-assessment studies are reviewed, and guidelines are provided for the development of self-assessment techniques. (JN)

Provides an assessment tool for day care center directors to distribute to their staff as a means of evaluating the director's leadership style and performance. Includes the survey, directions, and a scoring sheet. The article emphasizes that the director's leadership style is a powerful factor influencing organizational effectiveness. (GLR)

This document is the first in a series of annual, faculty-designed supplements to Nassau Community College's (NCC's) (New York) manual, "Concepts & Procedures for Academic Assessment." The supplements are intended to provide faculty a forum through which they can communicate assessment designs and the impacts of those designs on…

This digest explains why teacher comments on report cards are important, offers suggestions on how to construct effective comments, points out words or phrases to be cautious about using, and indicate sources of information for report card comments. Teacher comments are important in that they often convey information that is not completely…

Discusses some difficulties that may be anticipated in facilitating teachers' use of functional-assessment procedures. Strategies are suggested for promoting acceptance of the functional-assessment process and for providing training and technical assistance to support its appropriate implementation. (CR)

The evaluation system described in this paper represents an attempt to provide objective, current, and course-specific evaluation of liberal education at Marycrest College, Iowa. This evaluation system uses a questionnaire to assess student perceptions of individual courses in relation to a set of general educational objectives determined by the…

This article includes school improvement variables to be considered in the evaluation of school improvement under the provisions of California's AB 65. The variables are categorized as pupil and teacher attitudes, instructional methods involving pupils and teachers, and school plant data. (Author)

Two articles are presented on the implementation of Reading Recovery in Maine. The first article, "Collaborative Efforts Can Make a Difference: The Development of Reading Recovery in Maine" articulates and shares the process which took place in Maine in the hope that it will assist interested stakeholders in other states in the…