This article provides a conceptual framework for considering both the theoretical and methodological factors that underpin the successful validation of a competency framework. Drawing on educational assessment literature, this article argues that a valid competency framework relates to an interpretive judgement of the credibility of the claims…

Parent involvement in a child's education has been demonstrated to increase child maintenance and generalization of skills taught in early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) settings to their home environments, improve parent-child relationships, and decrease parent stress. Parent coaching is a way to support parents' development of…

Early intervention (EI) and early childhood special education (ECSE) practitioners participating in the Child Outcomes Summary (COS) process must understand age-expected development, the ages at which children typically acquire different skills. This resource provides answers to commonly asked questions about age anchoring as it applies to the COS…

The implementation of effective instructional materials, such as a core reading program, by a qualified teacher is an important part of improving students' reading achievement. But selecting those instructional materials can be time-consuming. Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Southeast created this rubric for evaluating reading/language arts…

The article presents a checklist for determining the extent of integration of severely handicapped students into regular school environments. The 14 item list is explained to be useful in identifying environments (such as the cafeteria, assembly programs, recess, and school hallways) in which integration of severely handicapped students should be…

This guide to the development of effective documentation for users of computer software begins by identifying five types of documentation, i.e., training manuals, user guides, tutorials, on-screen help comments, and troubleshooting manuals. Six steps in the development process are then outlined and briefly described: (1) planning and preparation;…

The Leisure and Recreation Behavior Checklist (LRBC) is an open-ended checklist for recording behaviors of mentally handicapped adults. Its function is to profile individuals' leisure or recreation activities for program, administration, and research purposes. Intended for use by care-givers, the measure stresses recording of observed behaviors…

Discusses qualities of a good grading system; describes the development and use of criteria designed to evaluate journalism students' personal characteristics, professional development, and skills in reporting, writing, design, editing, and administration. Includes a reproduction of the evaluation form used by the author. (GT)

Discussion of the development of written instructional materials for distance education focuses on the transformation of existing materials into good teaching materials by course teams. Changes in the course as a whole are considered as well as changes in the materials; checklists are provided; and examples are given of transformed materials.…

This checklist is intended to give school governing board members a means of assessing their meeting practices. The checklist contains five categories, with a total of 80 questions, pertaining to meeting-management variables common to all governing boards. The categories include: (1) preparation for the meetings; (2) operation of the meetings; (3)…

This publication introduces and presents an Effective Schools Checklist that can serve as a broad guide for administrators comparing their schools to the profile of an effective school. The categories assessed are school climate, institutional organization, the curriculum, instruction, training and development, and evaluation and assessment. (PGD)

The document contains materials from the Jefferson County (Alabama) vision and hearing screening program to identify students with sensory impairments, to monitor "at risk" students, and to provide appropriate educational intervention. The package contains the following: instructions for the principle on vision screening; procedures for…

A reading observation checklist is presented for principal use in classroom observation. (MD)

Presents a checklist of observable reading behavior that can be used to facilitate the organization of and communication about the classroom reading behavior of the child with a reading problem. (HOD)

A checklist is presented for evaluating classroom environmental design for students with dual sensory impairments, and for identifying environmental features that promote communication, independent mobility, student anticipation of events, and self-initiation of activities. Checklist items reflect a variety of considerations including ambience,…