Research indicates that several factors variably influence teachers' approaches to classroom assessment. Building on previous assessment literacy research, this study empirically examines variability in teachers' approaches to classroom assessment across a set of dimensions including their conceptions of assessment purposes, processes, fairness,…

Formative assessment is the process by which teachers and students gather evidence of learning and then use this to adapt the way they teach and learn. I describe a design research project in which we integrated formative assessment strategies into lesson materials that focus on developing students' conceptual understanding and their capacity to…

The Office of Planning and Institutional Research (OPAIR), at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus was asked to undertake an analysis of student throughput rates as part of a University-wide initiative involving the three campuses. Each Campus was provided with a template and guidelines for reporting the data. The exercise was intended…

Over a decade ago, Barr and Tagg (1995) declared that a shift had occurred in higher education from an instruction paradigm to a learning paradigm. A central element in this new paradigm is learner-centered assessment. While a growing body of literature suggests that this approach to assessment is a best practice in higher education pedagogy, it…

The GED (General Educational Development) Tests are widely used to certify a high school level of academic knowledge and skills. The popularity and profound influence of the GED Tests have solicited numerous studies on the outcomes of obtaining a GED credential. Most studies on labor market outcomes for GED credential recipients have targeted…

This study examines the demographic, academic, social, and behavioral differences between GED (General Educational Development) candidates who were and were not retained in grade. Differences between candidates who were and were not retained in grade are examined with regard to factors such as demographics, delinquent behaviors, reasons for…

This paper discusses two efforts that offer solution paths to interoperability of the Z39.50 standard protocol for information retrieval. The first section provides background on interoperability and Z39.50, identifying the categories of syntactic protocol interoperability, functional protocol interoperability, and semantic interoperability. The…

Describes the development of evaluation within the United States and traces the connections between evaluation and the documents that founded the United States. Analyzes the demands placed on evaluation by modern democracies and comments on the importance of the selection of evaluation indicators and the necessity of systematic evaluation. (SLD)

This paper provides an overview of inspections in England's schools. The paper describes four approaches to inspection: inspection in the pre-1993 days; the current inspection system in elementary-secondary education; inspections initiated by the schools themselves; and inspection in further-education colleges, which are similar to community…

The political context of evaluation is compared for the United States and developing countries, and a framework is proposed for discussing the political context of evaluation. Significant differences are the role that international donor agencies play in developing countries and the emphasis on stakeholder evaluation in the United States. (SLD)

Reviews some of the problems involved in the evaluation of educational software, and describes a classroom-based case study approach to software evaluation intended for application by autonomous self-programming groups of teachers. (20 references) (Author/CLB)

Introducing a wider perspective of evaluation into the school by developing school-based evaluation mechanisms is discussed. The approach is based on conceptual development derived from U.S. perspectives on program evaluation, actual work in schools with teachers and principals in Israel, and empirical studies in the United States. (SLD)

A study was conducted to examine the procedures and requirements of a formative evaluation when it is carried out for instructional materials that have been designed for a U.S. target audience, but which also have potential use by a population of another country, e.g., Brazil. The study concentrated on determining whether different formative…

Based on research conducted in 1996 and 1999, this paper discusses theoretical issues and provides an overview of the purposes for which school libraries are creating and maintaining home pages or World Wide Web sites. In 1996, a content analysis was performed of Web sites of 50 school libraries in the United States, Australia, Canada, Sweden,…

This study developed a classification scheme to critically compare performance assessment projects at higher education universities in North America and Europe. Performance indicators and assessment initiatives were compared using nine basic dimensions: (1) locus of control, (2) degree of governmental involvement, (3) focus of performance…