In order to increase the efficiency and quality of performance assessment, the Leon County (Florida) Schools implemented a program in which teachers used the Apple Newton personal digital assistant and newly developed "Learner Profile" software program during 1994-95, in order to take observational and performance-based assessments in…

Describes the political aspects of the implementation of a new teacher evaluation system through an observational case study of a school district's 3-year effort to link personnel performance to system and school goals through teacher evaluation. Findings illustrate the importance of technical expertise and a sophisticated political understanding…

Kamehameha Schools (Honolulu, Hawaii), a privately funded program with approximately 2,000 students and 175 teachers grades 7-12, is implementing a school-wide curriculum evaluation program. As part of this program, the departments of mathematics, science, social studies, counseling, human relations, speech and English collaborated in the…

An analysis was made of the methods being used to assess the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) of 1990. Although no single assessment plan has been developed, various activities are aimed at studying both the implementation and the impact of the law. Four assessment efforts are described as conducted by the following groups: (1) the Office of…

The External Diploma Program (EDP) of the American Council on Education is an applied-performance, competency-based assessment program that provides credentials to skilled adults who have acquired their high-school-level abilities through their life experience. Through the EDP mature adults can do the following: demonstrate their abilities in a…

The 1992-93 school year marked the first year of implementation of the statewide mandate of the Arizona Student Assessment Program (ASAP), which revised previous legislation. Iowa Test of Basic Skills testing requirements were restricted to grades 2 and 7, and districts were allowed greater flexibility in their own testing, which had previously…

An overview of cost analysis is provided as it relates to a particular educational reform--the use of performance or authentic assessment on a large scale as a means of transforming entire educational systems. The focus of the inquiry is the New Standards Project (NSP), a joint effort of the National Center on Education and the Economy and the…

This paper describes the processes that one school district, the Visalia Unified School District (California), went through in establishing a standards-based assessment and accountability system using multiple methods. First the district's standards-based assessment and accountability system and the methods used to establish it are described, and…

This paper places Kentucky's accountability program in the national context, and then describes how educators in four rural Kentucky school districts reacted to the program in the initial years of its implementation. The information is drawn from a qualitative study of the implementation of the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) in these four…

The Kentucky Education Reform Act legislated by the 1990 General Assembly created a high-stakes school performance accountability system to monitor the progress of implementation. One major component of the accountability system is a schedule of consequences designed to reward those schools making sufficient progress in improving student…

The Odyssey Project is named for the Greek hero, Odysseus, who for 10 years, sought the purpose of life. The Project is based on the philosophy that a new generation of American schools must be viewed as a lifelong quest for excellence. The project is one of 11 designs for schools funded by the New American Schools Development Corporation, a…

In 1991-92 Vermont initiated a statewide portfolio assessment program in mathematics and writing in grades 4 and 8. An evaluation of the program found mixed results--although the portfolio scores were unreliable for individual or school-level reporting and teachers had concerns about implementation, the assessment had marked positive effects on…