States use their accountability systems to identify low-performing schools, which can receive added support and are expected to improve. Alternative schools serve students whose needs are not met in a regular school. They often serve at-risk students who are struggling academically or behaviorally. Given this unique population, the Government…

In 1991 the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) released a report interpreting the achievement of U.S. students in mathematics on the 1990 National Assessment of Educational Progress in terms of a set of performance standards. The NAGB had been designing and implementing an approach to defining basic, proficient, and advanced levels of…

During the spring of 1987, the National Conference of State Legislatures awarded the Nebraska Legislature a cost-sharing award to study local school evaluation processes. Embodied in Legislative Resolution 181, which has the purpose of studying school evaluation procedures, the study attempts to provide legislators, educators, local school…

This document provides statements presented at the oversight hearing on testing and assessment evaluation to improve learning in the nation's schools. Walter Haney summarizes the National Commission on Testing and Public Policy's recent report, which concluded that while well-designed and responsibly used assessment is an important source of…

At one of a series of hearings on H.R. 6, the Elementary and Secondary Education Amendments of 1993, several experts discussed issues related to national assessment, assessment in Chapter 1, and state efforts to develop new forms of assessment. Eleanor Chelimsky, Assistant Comptroller General for Program Evaluation and Methodology of the General…

The utility of the proposed Program Evaluation Standards to educational practitioners, and the adequacy of some of the standards in addressing issues in evaluation in culturally and linguistically educational environments are discussed, drawing on the author's experience as Director of the Evaluation Assistance Center East in Arlington (Virginia).…

The National Reporting System (NRS) is a project to develop an accountability system for the federally funded adult education program. The system includes a set of student measures to allow assessment of the impact of adult education instruction, methodologies for collecting the measures, reporting forms and procedures, and training and technical…

Both the Department of Education (ED) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) support a wide variety of studies of systemic and other educational reform in science, mathematics, and technology. Many of the studies have common or complementary purposes. To provide more comprehensive knowledge as a basis for decision making and to manage resources…

The National Reporting System (NRS) established reporting requirements for the adult education program required by Title II of the Workforce Investment Act. The NRS defines the measures local programs must collect, the methodologies for collecting them, and state reporting requirements. This document presents the guidelines for conducting the NRS…

This document, the second in a series, delineates mandatory procedures for onsite school evaluations as adopted by the Ohio State Board of Education, pursuant to the adoption of the 1983 minimum standards. These procedures give direction to the system of education in Ohio, while allowing flexibility within the standards to establish educational…

Florida state legislation has mandated the evaluation of its compensatory education programs. The Florida Accountability Act of 1976 called for minimum basic skills testing in grades 3, 5, 8, and 11 (subsequently amended to grade 10). In 1977, the Florida Compensatory Education Act mandated remedial programs for students performing below the…