Urges accurate assessment of program implementation and the determination of student performance in areas not measured by achievement tests. Offers indicators of hard-to-measure levels of achievement in teachers and students, as they have been developed in the Johnson City, New York, Public Schools' mastery learning approach. (JW)

Research evidence shows that mastery learning is much more effective than conventional methods; however, it is not yet known whether it works equally well for all kinds of learning and for all kinds of students. (Author/JM)

The Seattle Public Schools serve one of the most diverse student bodies in the nation. The school system's enrollment represents many racial and ethnic groups and includes students from around the world who come to Seattle speaking many languages and families who came to the city generations ago. The challenge facing Seattle and all other major…

Findings of positive effects of mastery learning on experimenter-made measures can be interpreted as supporting the view that this technique may help focus teachers on a given set of objectives. The claim that mastery learning can accelerate achievement, in general, in elementary and secondary schools is still awaiting evidence. (SLD)

Over a three-year period every school system in Maryland received State Department of Education support in putting into practice research on effective teaching, using strategies and processes from the research on effective staff development and planned change. This paper summarizes some of the findings of an intensive study of this program, School…

This study assesses the Personalized System of Instruction's (Keller Plan) conventional academic environment capability. The author focuses on some of the issues accompanying the introduction of PSI. (SA)

Project CIVTEC was conducted through the Columbia, South Carolina State Board for Technical and Comprehensive Education in cooperation with the National Science Foundation and has developed an individualized instructional approach, based on mastery learning, for eleven core curriculum courses in Civil Engineering Technology. The basic format for…

Summarizes the classroom and school literature on the effects of teacher expectations, proposes a school-based model for the influence of teacher expectations on student performance, and describes applications of the model in Connecticut's school improvement efforts. (RH)

The School Improvement Through Instructional Process (SITIP) Program, initiated in Maryland in 1980, was concerned with improving classroom and school activities through the application of process-product research on classroom and school effectiveness. All 24 local education agencies voluntarily implemented one or more of four research-based…

A recent California Supreme Court ruling required San Diego Unified School District to implement a course of study in its minority isolated schools that would result in 50 percent of the students achieving at or above national norms on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills. In response to the court order, the district initiated the Achievement…

A meta-analysis of findings from 108 controlled evaluations showed that mastery learning programs have positive effects on the examination performance of students in colleges, high schools, and the upper grades in elementary schools. Effects of mastery programs on student attitudes, instructional time, and college completion rates are discussed.…

This paper describes a field study of the "Personalized System of Instruction" (PSI) as it was used in an undergraduate communications research course. On the basis of statistics from two years of the program's implementation and from student responses after completing the course, the study draws five conclusions. (1) Most students did…

One hundred twenty-five students found to have few areas of skill mastery were selected to form the Fresh Start Minischool (FSMS). The Fresh Start approach was characterized by individualized instruction in four academic areas (Social Studies, English, Mathematics, and Science). Students proceeded at their own pace and acquired skills according to…

This year-end evaluation report of the Chapter 1 Early Childhood Education (Preschool) Program in Portland (Oregon) Public Schools is a narrative supplement to the statistical forms used by Chapter 1 Education Consolidation Improvement Act (ECIA) evaluation and is organized into six sections: (1) introduction; (2) description of the program,…

Chicago's mastery learning program takes into account the complexities of reading and the realities of urban classrooms. Its designers say that if a program does not lead to success, it is not a mastery learning program. (Author/JM)