Accountability and dissemination of its work are important elements of Cedefop's policy to provide assurance to stakeholders for resources used and results achieved. For a centre of expertise and policy advice like Cedefop, the impact of which is hard to gauge for the common European citizen, legitimacy of public expenditure is important, and is…

California Assembly Bill 3408 requires school districts to adopt their own standards in basic skills, including reading comprehension, writing, and computation. Students must be tested at least once in grades 7-9 and twice in grades 10-11. After June, 1980, students who do not meet standards will not receive a high school diploma. Assembly Bill…

During the 1982-83 school year the Spencerport (New York) Central School District began a comprehensive project to study the effective schools research and its implications at all levels of a suburban school system. A leadership planning team (consisting of teachers, principals, and district personnel) participated in a series of workshops and…

The status of minimum competency testing programs, as of June 30, 1979, is given through descriptions of 31 state programs and 20 local district programs. For each program, the following information is provided: legislative and policy history; implementation phase; goals; competencies to be tested; standards and standard setting; target groups and…

The movement towards state-mandated minimum competency testing peaked in 1977-1978. Activity now centers on implementation: most programs will be implemented by 1980-81. To initiate programs, twenty-four states have used the state board approach, 20 enacted legislation, and six have passed both board and legislation mandates. Only Maine, Kansas,…

This brief report states that legal problems with competency testing have been more procedural than substantive-more concerned with implementation than legitimacy. The right to notice is the most straight-forward and firmly established principle to emerge from competency testing litigation. Students must have fair warning and opportunity to…

Information is presented regarding the administration of the North Carolina Minimum Skills Diagnostic Testing Program. This testing program, mandated by the state's basic education program under the Secondary School Reform Act of 1984, checks the necessity for remediation by determining a student's mastery of specific objectives and diagnoses…

The phenomenon of minimum competency testing (MCT) is explored, beginning with its origins in public concern for educational accountability. Three major themes appearing in the states enacting prescriptive legislation are described: state standards/state test (Florida); state standards/local test (Oregon); and local standards/local test…

This journal issue addresses the topic of mastery learning at both the elementary and secondary school levels. The first article, "The Theory and Practice of Mastery Learning" (Guskey), gives a definition of and information about the development, operation, and application of mastery learning, based on the theories of Benjamin Bloom. In…

Resulting from a project undertaken by Iowa's Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) to develop course and program competencies for the assessment of student academic achievement, this plan describes the assessment model developed by the college. Introductory sections describe the process used to develop the plan and provide responses to…

In an effort to meet all federal, state, and accreditation requirements, as well as accountability demands from business and industry, Iowa's Des Moines Area Community College (DMACC) developed a 3-year faculty-driven process to develop a plan for assessing student outcomes. The first step in the process was the formation of a 22-member faculty…

The document provides a process model for a competency-based adult high school diploma program. Following an overview, the document is arranged into nine chapters. Chapter 1 focuses on starting such a program and gives suggestions for conducting needs assessment, setting up a planning group, implementing adult basic education awareness activities,…

The concern of educators and the general public over the decline in basic skills achievement of students nationwide has led to a national push for results-oriented instruction and educational accountability. Many states are developing tests for life-related competencies which students should master during the schooling process. States moving…

This document outlines an overall plan of action for improving school effectiveness in the Spencerport (New York) school system. This master plan (developed by a leadership planning team consisting of key personnel in the Spencerport system, in cooperation with the Institute of Research on Teaching, College of Education, Michigan State University)…

This study examined issues concerned with the participation of students with disabilities or with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) in Minnesota's Profile of Learning, a taxonomy of learning expectations covering 13 different curricular areas across four different developmental levels (grades 3, 5, 8, and graduation level). Representatives…