The Singapore Ministry of Education's Enhanced Performance Management System (EPMS) was instituted in 2005 as a system of professional accountability to enhance the standards and stakes of teacher professionalism in schools. This essay explores how the EPMS, with its underlying paradigm of performance management, functions as a "technology of…

Like many adult ESL instructors, the author has felt firsthand the challenges of creating community in short-term courses. Through his experience, he has noticed that in order to successfully build community in short-term ESL courses, teachers need to lay a foundation for social contracts and social covenants from the first day of the course and…

This fifth and final lesson on library evaluation focuses on the evaluation of library personnel. Highlights include standards for comparison of employee's characteristics (ideal traits, productivity of other employees, job-related behavior), and Management By Objectives (involves mutual goal setting between manager and subordinate). Five required…

Defines and analyzes different approaches to contracting of foster care. The approaches are based on meeting standards specified in the contract. Using group foster care as an example, proposes a design for performance-based contracting that achieves intended objectives, yet is consistent with the values of the social work profession. (HTH)

Government contracting has raised a collection of issues with respect to adequate oversight and accountability. This paper explores one avenue through which contracting agencies may achieve these tasks: through the governance practices of the contractor's board. Oversight and monitoring are a board's key responsibilities, and influencing a board's…