In 2013 and 2018, the National Science and Technology Counsel (NSTC) released reports to raise awareness about the rapid growth in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) occupations. One of the ways states are addressing the projected increases in STEM careers and the lack of growth in how many students are pursuing STEM…

Despite decades of effort by federal science funders to increase the numbers of women holding advanced degrees and faculty jobs in science and engineering, they are persistently underrepresented in academic STEM disciplines, especially in positions of seniority, leadership, and prestige. Women filled 47% of all US jobs in 2015, but held only 24%…

A particular trait of the educational system under socialist reign was accountability at the input side--appropriate facilities, centrally decided curriculum, approved text-books, and uniformly trained teachers--but no control on the output. It was simply assumed that it met the agreed standards, which was, in turn, proven by the statistics…

When teachers or students assess the quality of ideas in science classes, they do so mostly based on "textbook correctness"; ideas are good to the extent they align with or lead to the content as presented in the textbook or curriculum. Such appeals to authority are at odds with the values and practices within the disciplines of science. There has…

Presented is a discussion of the change in the assessment of education in Australian schools from a system external to the schools to one internal to the schools. (SL)

This report discusses the fact that many educators are committed to competency based teacher education and teacher accountability systems in spite of the lack of empirical evidence linking teacher behavior to student outcomes in the classroom. Some of the difficulties associated with research in this area are identified as problems in…

Since 2001-2002, standards-based accountability (SBA) provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) have shaped the work of public school teachers and administrators in the United States. NCLB requires each state to develop content and achievement standards in several subjects, administer tests to measure students' progress toward…

This article considers issues in educational reform, particularly accountability-oriented policies, and student motivation. We argue that prominent theories of motivation derived from cognitive traits/states are antithetical to the assumptions underlying conventional assessment formats and accountability-oriented reforms. We advance an alternative…

ERIC abstracts on educational assessment, announced by this and other clearinghouses in RIE through April 1973, are presented. The key terms used in compiling this collection are "Evaluation,""Evaluation Criteria,""Evaluation Methods," and "Evaluation Techniques." This abstract updates on earlier ERIC…

The Performance-Based Accountability Program was enacted by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1989 as part of the School Improvement and Accountability Act. This report addresses five components of the program and includes appendixes that provide detailed data for several of the components. The Flexible Funding Provision is made for the…