Purpose: This study aims to report on how programme directors address sustainability within engineering education at Swedish universities and engineering colleges. Design/methodology/approach: The study was performed as a survey with follow-up interviews around the following core questions--to what extent do programme directors possess a deep…

This paper discusses certain developments in education policy in the European Union since the implementation of the Lisbon strategy. Greater focus on lifelong learning as a means of increasing the competitiveness of the European Union, and establishment of several new, efficient policy tools (above all the "open method of coordination")…

Developed as part of the Minimum Performance Testing Program (MPT), these item specifications for sixth grade reading were designed to provide an overview of the general content and format of test items used to measure instructional objectives. Each item specification contains the following information: objective identification number; grade…

Asserts that school systems will have to convert from their traditional methods of organizing and operating if competencies beyond the basic skills are to be taught. (Author/IRT)

This conference paper examines issues regarding minimum competency testing, including: (1) the history and current status of minimum competency testing programs, in the U.S. and especially in the Midwest; (2) technical characteristics of minimum competency tests; (3) the relationship of minimum competency tests to the regular curriculum and…

The instructional delivery system of traditional school practice consists of fixed time, single opportunities for learning a vague-referenced, variable, and private curriculum. While a minimum competency testing program ensures that academic standards are criterion-referenced, fixed, and public, the time allotted for learning may still be fixed.…

Parkrose School District's goal-based instructional program is designed to meet state minimal-competency requirements, keep the district's students abreast of national and local performance, and inform parents and the community of district students' progress. In response to public concern over students' declining basic skills, the state of Oregon…

This document includes a 3-page brochure describing the main report and the main report. The report explores competency-based models in postsecondary institutions and other learning environments. It is intended primarily as a guide for postsecondary educators who are interested in establishing such efforts at their institutions. The following…

This digest examines the tenets of outcome-based education (OBE), outlines some of its primary criticisms and challenges, and describes successful OBE models implemented in various school districts. Outcome-based education (OBE) is one model for restructuring currently being examined nationwide. In contrast to traditional educational practices…

Minimum competency testing programs present educational decision makers with a new opportunity to reconsider some fundamental issues in American public education. First, what is the goal of our elementary and secondary educational system? In particular, one must consider the role that minimum competency testing plays in the struggle for equality…

Public Act 84-126 amended The School Code of Illinois to include a definition of schooling and a requirement that the goals for learning be identified and assessed. This document identifies state goals for language arts education in grades 3, 6, 8, 10, and 12, and includes a sample set of district level learning objectives consistent with those…

The competency movement, or "the cult of competency," is critiqued in this paper, which argues that the movement is less concerned with the complex facets of competence than it is with a technology of specific knowledge and application. Educational institutions have several message systems through which objectives can be achieved:…

Developers of high stakes criterion-referenced tests are urged to formulate test tasks so that efficient instruction can promote student mastery of the domain. Time-on-task has been promoted by instructional psychologists as preferable to test teaching. (DWH)

Competency testing is only one component of competency-based education (CBE); the others are: educational objectives, instructional process, remedial instruction, and program evaluation/reconceptualization. To implement only competency testing may result in disillusionment with the entire concept of CBE, which seeks to improve programs, not fail…

While minimum competency testing may cause education to become less pluralistic, its effect will weigh most heavily upon those who fail to pass the tests. Because such testing does nothing to improve teaching or learning, one result will be to hold the student responsible for the educational system's failure. (Author/GC)