The PPIC Statewide Survey delivers nonpartisan, objective, advocacy-free information on the perceptions, opinions, and public policy preferences of California residents. PPIC invites input, comments, and suggestions from policy and public opinion experts and from its own advisory committee, but survey methods, questions, and content are determined…

Secretary of Education, Anne Duncan, has met with thousands of teachers and heard their fears and concerns. Teachers are asking: Are these reforms the Next Big Thing, here today but gone tomorrow? Will they focus on testing in a way that further narrows the curriculum and denies students the great education that we seek to bring? Could we lose our…

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…

One of the competitive priorities of the U.S. Department of Education's Race to the Top applications addressed science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). States that applied were required to submit plans that addressed rigorous courses of study, cooperative partnerships to prepare and assist teachers in STEM content, and prepare…

The advantages and disadvantages of four curriculum monitoring systems are presented. (MD)

In many school districts, the pressure to raise test scores has created overnight celebrity status for formative assessment. Its powers to raise student achievement have been touted, however, without attending to the research on which these claims were based. Sociocultural learning theory provides theoretical grounding for understanding how…

Presents survey results of 24 examination boards concerning their positions on the use of electronic calculators in exams. (CP)

Citing test scores as evidence of student achievement ignores the value of curricular areas in which knowledge cannot be measured objectively. Educators and parents who criticize the effectiveness of public education often do so on the basis of test scores rather than in terms of alternative, subjective educational goals. (PGD)

This is a progress report of the Demonstration of an Improved Science Curriculum for Underachieving Students (DISCUS) project for 1968-69. This project is based on the premise that if underachieving junior high school youth are separated from their more successful peers, placed in a success-oriented environment, and provided with a series of…

The purposes of this study were to (a) identify how leadership in a successful rural school districts has helped raise student achievement levels beyond those of comparable school districts as measured by state and federal mandated test scores, (b) investigate the district leadership that aligns with identified effective practices, and (c)…

Can real comparability of examination standards be attained between different boards and different years? Argues that the attempt has to be made. (Editor)

Standards-based assessments were prescribed as the cure for the poor accountability of public schools. Billions of dollars have been spent on curricula, tests, and scoring rubrics so that federal and state agencies can rank schools in terms of student achievement. Over the past twenty years, standards-based education has become the defacto, only…

This collection of essays and articles on education reform highlights many of the issues of greatest interest to educators and the public. Articles are grouped into the following categories: (1) "The Front Lines" (9 selections); (2) "Charter Schools" (4 selections); (3) "School Choice" (4 selections); (4)…

In recent years, educational research and development has focused increased attention on ways of enhancing the instructional value of tests. This ERIC Digest summarizes some of the recent advances in linking instruction and assessment. Studies of teacher effectiveness indicate how important systematic assessment of student progress and use of test…

Argues that because widely used multiple choice tests do not measure more complex cognitive skills, such skills are not taught. Suggests that greater costs of tests in other formats can be justified by their value for instruction--to encourage teaching of higher level cognitive skills and provide practice with feedback. (CMG)