Under the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation, 22 urban school districts have been involved in a long-term educational reform through the Urban Systemic Initiative (USI) program since 1994. This paper presents a brief summary of findings regarding best policies and practices in the educational reform effort focusing on student…

Information on opportunity to learn can be collected in national surveys primarily in terms of the written curriculum or the real curriculum (what is actually taught). Questions of this sort are asked in several national surveys, with the most comprehensive being in the National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988. Other national surveys for…

While educational researchers frequently collect data from a sample of individuals on a sample of variables, they sometimes collect data involving samples of: (1) subjects; (2) variables; and (3) occasions of measurement. A multistage procedure for analyzing such three-mode data is presented, focusing on effect sizes and graphic confidence…

The purpose of this report is to determine the feasibility of and need for a series of social indicator reports on the status of women and disadvantaged minorities in education, as students, teachers, and administrators. Further, it addresses questions concerning the form, issues to be covered, and data that should be used if such reports are…

This paper gives an overview of the methods of moderation, or quality assurance and quality control, as they may be more widely known, that are used to enhance the quality of student assessment. The discussion is based on the educational systems of the United Kingdom but is applicable to assessment in other countries. Quality in assessment is seen…

A group of seven conference papers, all dealing with the role of testing and evaluation in the schools, is presented in this document. The papers are as follows: (1) "Framework for Effective Schools" (Eric Cooper), which identifies indicators of efficacy, quality, and equity; (2) "Quality Indicators for Monitoring Equity"…