What is meant by the term "standards"? This article will use the definition of the National Academy of Sciences for their workshop on Assessing the Role of K-12 Academic Standards, "generally used to refer to both content standards, which describe material that students should be expected to learn, and performance standards, which…

The OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) focuses on young people's ability to use their knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges. This orientation reflects a change in the goals and objectives of curricula themselves, which are increasingly concerned with what…

This chapter discusses alternatives beyond traditional standardized tests or curriculum standards consisting of naive checklists of low-level facts and skills to operationally define educational goals in ways that provide direction for both instruction and accountability. Suggestions are drawn from physical and social sciences as well as from…

This paper attempts to clarify the scope of performance contracting, to speculate about its genesis in terms of socio-economic forces, and to review current opinion among those who will likely influence its future. (Author)

This speech discusses a utility function estimation procedure developed to provide curriculum planning information to elementary school principals. The administrator's utility (or preference) function was defined based on the performance of his students on a nationally standardized examination in a particular curriculum goal area. Both theoretical…

Clearly defined goals are described as the first component of a program evaluation. The goals of this booklet are: to demonstrate the need for clearly written statements of goals, outcomes, and objectives; to provide examples; to provide a method of deriving goals from already published materials; to demonstrate the relationship between writing…

The author states that vocational education leaders must face three kinds of decisions: (1) fundamental reexamination of the design and structure of the educational system; (2) whether or not vocational and nonvocational education should be co-mingled at the secondary and postsecondary levels; and (3) updating and upgrading of the school-based…