Substantial emphasis has been placed on Florida Extension faculty evaluating their educational programs for impact and the utilization of these data for program accountability, yet little is known of the extent to which the faculty have accepted this responsibility. In order to assess the stage of adoption of impact evaluation as a practice, and…

This report explores changes in school policies and practices resulting from an externally mandated, high-stakes testing program. It is based on a study that investigated one Minnesota school district's transformation following the passage of a 1993 law mandating a results-oriented graduation rule. The paper outlines the role of testing programs…

Most states have expanded their statewide testing programs to include alternative educational assessments, and two (Kentucky and Maine) have completely abandoned the multiple-choice format. However, over half of states designing alternative assessments are encountering major difficulties related to the high cost of performance-based assessments,…

The current accountability movement in education is examined in terms of its historical antecedents and federal versus state initiatives and requirements. The assumptions underlying the educational accountability movement are then considered, and refinements and extensions to these assumptions are proposed. The accountability movement in American…

This report presents a plan for an Educational Assessment and Accountability System for Hawaii. The purpose of this plan is to provide an analytical as well as a descriptive account of the condition of public education in Hawaii. It is meant to be a vehicle to provide the means by which educational outcomes can be examined in light of contextual…

A survey was conducted of the literature pertaining to higher education program review. Many institutions of higher education have come under intense scrutiny and criticism, and have been required to respond to public pressure for accountability. Program review is one component of the assessment of institutional effectiveness. The following seven…

Marketing has become a popular strategic initiative among state extension services to meet the growing demand for program accountability. The Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service (LCES) began a formative evaluation of its marketing efforts as a step toward a comprehensive marketing plan. All extension faculty were surveyed to determine their…

The role and influence of mandated testing in educational reform are reviewed. Mandated testing refers to large-scale (districtwide or statewide) multiple-choice testing programs used for policy purposes of evaluation and accountability, which includes nationally normed standardized achievement tests and tests custom-developed to reflect state and…

This report examines performance evaluations of state loan/scholarship programs and direct support for medical education reform programs for the education and training of health care professionals. It is based on a survey of all administrators of state scholarship and loan repayment programs and a mail survey of officials in the 34 states which…

This "Profile" offers a snapshot of state assessment systems by describing some of their fundamental characteristics. Its focus is on what individual states are doing in terms of developing their own standards and assessments and how they report these results. Two pages of information are presented for each state (but not for the…

Measuring History complements the cases presented in Wise Social Studies Practices (Yeager & Davis, 2005). Yeager and Davis highlight the rich and ambitious teaching that can occur in the broad context of state-level testing. In this book, the chapter authors and I bring the particular state history tests more to the fore and examine how…