To monitor and evaluate program success and to provide teachers with a tool that could support their transformation in teaching practice, we needed an effective and valid protocol to measure the quantity and quality of inquiry-based instruction being led. Existing protocols, though helpful, were either too generic or too program specific.…

This study evaluated a protocol that was developed to assess how beneficial electronic travel aids are for persons who are visually impaired. Twenty persons with visual impairments used an electronic travel device (Trekker) for six weeks to conform to the protocol, which proved useful in identifying successful users of the device. (Contains 2…

A central part of education reform today is the wide-ranging and unprecedented effort to either revamp existing teacher evaluation systems or develop and implement entirely new systems. High-quality teacher evaluation systems are seen as one lever for improving the teacher workforce and hence the outcomes of students, including high school…

Since the first child care Quality Rating System (QRS) was implemented in Oklahoma 11 years ago (in 1998), 16 additional statewide systems have been launched and numerous states are piloting or developing a QRS (Zaslow, Tout, & Martinez-Beck, forthcoming). As QRS stakeholders across the nation look ahead to the next decade, it is important to take…

In "Holding Accountability to Account: How Scholarship and Experience in Other Fields Inform Exploration of Performance Incentives in Education"--a paper presented at the National Center on Performance Incentives research to policy conference in February--Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, argues educational…

The work of eight learning theorists was used to evaluate a proposed adult education/learning experience in an effort to operationalize a system for locating strengths and weaknesses in an instructional system prior to its implementation. Thirty-five implications for adult education were extrapolated from work representing the Behaviorist (B.F.…

Unlike classical experimental evaluation techniques, this evaluation design is intended to accommodate maximum flexibility and a dual purpose: to learn from the program under scrutiny and to help the program in its efforts. The program being evaluated here is the PUSH for Excellence (PUSH-EXCEL) Program whose activities focus on promoting an…

In November, 1985, the Council of Chief State School Officers adopted a plan for developing educational indicators. The plan provided for the development of a common measure of student achievement to be collected across states beginning in 1988-89. In order to design a student achievement assessment program, the states were asked to give their…

Measures of quality are now in widespread use across states as part of quality improvement initiatives. For example, many states are currently using global measures of quality that were first developed for research and practice purposes (such as the Environmental Rating Scales) in their Quality Rating Systems (QRSs). Although global quality…

The basic philosophy underlying many contemporary developments in educational theory and practice is the concept of "equal opportunity" within an education system as distinct from the older concept of "equal education" for all. This research project investigated alternative educational environments that could be designed to…

An evaluation of Manitoba's French immersion programs at the levels of grades 3, 6, and 9 focused on program effectiveness in teaching listening comprehension and speech skills. The results for grade 9 are presented here. The first section describes the framework of the immersion curriculum and the listening and oral skills targeted in it. The…