Every day in classrooms across the country teachers are using district, state, and federal standards and assessments to prove their effectiveness, monitor students' progress, and understand students' strengths and needs. Jobs depend on student achievement, and in today's age of accountability, assessment scores define what students…

Calls for evidence-based reform of teacher preparation programs (TPPs) suggest the question: Do the current indicators of progress and performance used by TPPs predict effectiveness of their graduates when they become teachers? In this study, the indicators of progress and performance used by one program are examined for their ability to predict…

Summative assessments that are integrated within the daily pedagogy of teachers are problematic. Some argue that they cannot both be helpful to pedagogy and yield results that are comparable across and between schools. Others claim that there is enough evidence to show that these targets can be achieved. The project described in this paper…

This study documents the system of funded interventions employed at three public universities to support minority students studying science and examines targeted students' career paths to discern the general efficacy of these interventions and other factors influencing success toward earning Ph.D.s. Interventions, including supplemental…

This study examines academic trends in learning and assessment theories based on the OPPA (One Page Portfolio Assessment), which was developed in 2002. The study also clarifies the theoretical framework, teaching practices, application, and effectiveness of the OPPA. The OPPA was developed to solve three teaching and learning challenges: (1) how…

For the forty-first time, the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. The Proceedings of AECT's Convention are published in two volumes. Volume 1 contains twenty-seven…

In 2006, special education teachers made up 12% of the educational workforce but only 7% of National Board Certified teachers. In contrast, general education teachers made up 88% of the educational workforce and 93% of National Board Certified teachers. This study surveyed a sample of special education teachers who successfully completed…

The two-fold purpose of the study was to determine whether or not the Arkansas Leadership Academy's Master Principal Institute's (MPI) five curriculum content standards were aligned with the literature of effective educational leadership practices, and to ascertain if there were significant relationships among the principals' leadership practices…

Many institutions of higher education have designed a variety of first-year seminars to facilitate student transition to college. These seminars are often assessed in terms of their overall impact on academic performance and retention. However, limited research has been conducted to identify the types of seminars that are most effective for…

Electronic portfolios (eportfolios) represent an assessment measure with strong potential to provide feedback about student performance to improve curricula and pedagogy, to determine individual students' mastery of learning and support feedback for improvement, and to actively involve students in the assessment process. This study examined the…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 places a strong emphasis on the use of student achievement test scores to measure school performance, and, throughout the United States, school and district education reform efforts are increasingly focusing on the use of student achievement data to make decisions about curriculum and instruction. To encourage…

To enhance student performance, prevent attrition, and build a learning community, two courses were linked together by requiring concurrent enrollment. "Writing Effectively," an upper-division composition course, was linked with "Abnormal Psychology," an upper-division clinical psychology course, requiring concurrent enrollment in both. In short,…

Effective exploration of spatially referenced educational achievement data can help educational researchers and policy analysts accelerate interpretation of datasets to gain valuable insights. This paper illustrates the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to analyze educational achievement gaps in Arkansas. It introduces the Geographic…

Following the growing commitment to assessment at the undergraduate level, doctoral programs are now grappling with what accountability means for them. This book provides a foundation for faculty and academic leaders of doctoral programs to promote inquiry into the educational practices that define their programs and contribute to graduate…

At Santa Maria Middle School in southwest Phoenix, Arizona, teachers have decided to maintain their relationships with their students by looping through sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. Here, they describe the results of the first three years of the program, discussing the development of their team's priorities and the strategies they embraced…