This article offers a case example of how experimental evaluation methods can be coupled with principles of design-based implementation research (DBIR), improvement science (IS), and rapid-cycle evaluation (RCE) methods to provide relatively quick, low-cost, credible assessments of strategies designed to improve programs, policies, or practices.…

The Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) requires faculty from educator preparation programs to provide evidence of credential candidates' impact on K-12 student learning. However, there is a paucity of information on preparation programs' use of direct assessments of student learning to gauge credential candidate…

This issue of "Assessment Update" presents the following articles: (1) Organizing for Learning Improvement: What It Takes (Andrea M. Pope and Keston H. Fulcher); (2) Editor's Notes: The Leadership Imperatives for Assessment Excellence -- Imperative #2, Attracting and Retaining Talent to Support Assessment Excellence (Stephen P. Hundley);…

Books by education experts and speakers at national professional conferences have inspired many school leaders to initiate professional learning communities (PLCs). Sustaining them effectively to raise student achievement is another matter. How can one know whether a PLC is moving toward a desired outcome? Measuring effectiveness requires an…

No Child left Behind, The ESEA Flexibility Program, and the Race to the Top contest have spurred a multitude of School Improvement programs, businesses, initiatives and more. The current emphasis on standardized testing, data gathering and analysis, and measuring effective schooling has caused many education agencies, state and local, to seek…

Performance-based accountability along with budget tightening has increased pressure on publicly funded organizations to develop and deliver programs that produce meaningful social benefits. As a result, there is increasing need to undertake formative evaluations that estimate preliminary program outcomes and identify promising program components…

Higher education experts tout learning outcomes assessment as a vehicle for program improvement. To this end the authors share a rubric designed explicitly to evaluate the quality of assessment and how it leads to program improvement. The rubric contains six general assessment areas, which are further broken down into 14 elements. Embedded within…

Effective principals are those who boost academic achievement for all students, increase the effectiveness of their teaching staffs, and consistently take leadership actions shown to improve outcomes for students. Therefore principal evaluation systems should place 70% of their weight on the ability of principals to increase student achievement…

In large-scale assessments, such as state-wide testing programs, national sample-based assessments, and international comparative studies, there are many steps involved in the measurement and reporting of student achievement. There are always sources of inaccuracies in each of the steps. It is of interest to identify the source and magnitude of…

Teacher evaluation has emerged as a major focus for reform at the highest levels of education policymaking, and for good reason. Most evaluations are based on scant evidence of actual effectiveness, produce inflated ratings, and provide teachers with little useful feedback. This paper offers policymakers and practitioners important "lessons…

The impact of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is usually understood in relation to schools and districts, but the legislation has also affected community-based organizations that operate school-linked programs. This case study of an after-school program in California demonstrates how educational accountability systems that emphasize students' academic…

This document supplements the advice given in "How good is our school?" (HGIOS)--third edition and "The Child at the Centre"--second edition which set out comprehensive quality frameworks and provide helpful advice on the process of improvement through self-evaluation. In particular, this document provides advice on the…

The purpose of the COPES subsystem is the improvement of the quality and availability of occupational education for the disadvantaged student who attends a California community college. The subsystem facilitates achievement of its purpose by: (1) providing easily administered procedures for studying aspects of occupational education related to the…

Examines both the explicit and implicit assumptions behind the Kirkpatrick evaluation model. Attempts to demonstrate conceptually the danger of simplistic evaluation approaches and argues for rigorous evaluation designs. (CSS)

This report describes a project undertaken at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) between January 1, 1982 and March 31, 1984, which was designed to increase the use in program assessment and in program improvement of information derived from measures of: (1) student achievement in general education; (2) student achievement in the major…