Every developmental education teacher would probably agree that motivation to complete assignments is one of the biggest obstacles to getting students to practice necessary skills. Short stories and other types of recreational reading might help motivate students, but they need to learn specific skills to help them cope with college textbook…

Books, articles, and theses are included in this annotated bibliography on mastery learning. Approximately 100 citations are included covering the period from 1969 to 1979. (DS)

Educational accountability is central to the reputation of the nation's community colleges. Some community colleges are adopting mastery learning, competency-based education, curriculum tracking, and/or minimum competency-testing as a means of remaining educationally accountable. Mastery learning programs, under which students are required to…

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 based education (CBE) programs can increase pupil motivation, provide the opportunity to individualized instruction, and enable the school to communicate better to the pupil and the public what pupils are learning in school, according to the author. But he lists eight traps that lie hidden in the CBE movement, including further…

Six goals are essential to basic skills mastery. Goal one is the identification of specific competencies and performance indicators which are necessary for students to master to become a coping adult. The appendix lists 17 competencies modeled after the Adult Performance Level Project (APL). Competencies are organized into five knowledge areas:…

The most important aspect of competency-based education is clearly linked to Bloom's mastery learning model: the establishment of behaviors which ought to be learned and adequately performed by public school students. The main components of competency based education are: (1) establishment of student standards; (2) student testing; and (3)…

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.…

This document presents a collection of materials on school performance in Maryland, especially as demonstrated in the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP) and the Independence Mastery Assessment Program (IMAP) for some special needs students. The MSPAP is a testing program administered to third, fifth, and eighth grade students…

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…

The Competency-based Middle School Program (grades 6-8) and the Competency-based Secondary School Project (grades 9-11) were funded by the South Carolina State Department of Education under the Elementary Secondary Education Act Title IV-C. These programs were to provide instruction based on the principles of mastery learning in helping middle…

The Terry Campus of Delaware Technical and Community College has established academic standards to endorse competencies and skills for all courses of the technological programs. These standards eliminate conflicts and allow students to understand, from the beginning of their studies, the requirements for awarding a degree, diploma, or certificate.…

This newsletter reports on the activities of Equipped for the Future (EFF), which is a National Institute for Literacy (NIFL) initiative that develops content standards to ensure that every adult can gain the knowledge and skills needed to fulfill real-world responsibilities as workers, parents, and citizens. A message from the NIFL…