Using short-term pilot programs to evaluate textbooks can lead to unreliable results and interfere with effective education. Alternative methods for evaluating textbook-based programs include obtaining documented analyses of competitors' products from sales agents, visiting districts using programs being considered, and examining publishers' own…

Pellicer claims that personal interviews for selecting teachers can be made more reliable by using a structured approach. In response, Muller agrees that the structured interview is better than informal procedures, but states that the instrument used must be the product of careful research. (Author/MLF)

Proposes a method for evaluating courseware as an integral part of curriculum, based both on "curriculum commonplaces" (the curriculum content and all that surrounds it) and on educational values and beliefs; an evaluative matrix is offered, with the commonplaces arrayed along one axis, values and beliefs along the other. (MCG)

The "skills trace" is a textbook evaluation process by which an evaluator isolates one skill and reads every reference listed in the index of the teacher's manual. The evaluator then observes how that skill is introduced, taught, practiced, and tested throughout the grades. (Author/DCS)

Skillfully interviewing students can elicit useful information about the quality of the educational program. (JM)

A combination of methods--portfolios, direct observation, assessment centers, and better tests--can compensate for one another's shortcomings and reflect the richness and complexity of teaching. (Author/TE)

Defines education's new paradigm as schooling based on decision making, the critical thinking skills serving it, and the knowledge base supporting it. Outlines a model decision-making process using a hypothetical breakfast problem; a late riser chooses goals, generates ideas, develops an action plan, and implements and evaluates it. (4 references)…

To audit school climate requires sound comprehensive planning and should include assessment of the climate dimensions of human satisfaction and human productivity. (Author/JM)

Argues that overreliance on standardized tests contributes to the deterioration of educational standards, teacher passivity, and lack of student involvement in academic studies, thus undermining democratic education; lists several alternatives to standardized testing. (MCG)

The rewards and sanctions accompanying performance-based pay and promotion programs will not be valued or given credibility as long as teacher evaluations are not approached professionally. The effect of treating teachers as bureaucrats or professionals, the limits of bureaucratic evaluation, and the demands of professional evaluation are…

Evaluation procedures should focus on improving instruction, should be realistic and practical, and should enhance the supervisor-teacher relationship. (Author)

Defining "curriculum documents" as all written forms a curriculum might take (such as philosophy statements, scope and sequence displays, curriculum guides, instructional units, resource units, or courses of study), this article provides criteria and an instrument for evaluating such documents. (JM)

The Thinking/Writing model integrates principles of learning theory, composing process research, and practical writing strategies. It is developed to motivate teachers to use writing as a tool for promoting cognitive growth. (MD)

Lists 45 criteria for assessing a school's multiethnic education program. (JM)

A professor of educational psychology describes the goals of research in progress on the personal characteristics of expert teachers, compares classroom management techniques of expert teachers with those of beginning and student teachers, and criticizes existing teacher evaluation systems for their lack of uniform standards and experienced…