The Conference sought to provide a user-based and -oriented assessment of performance contracting for education. It focused on delineating the current interest in performance contracting, the technique's demonstrated strengths and weaknesses, and its potential as an alternative approach to school system resource allocation. Six commissioned papers…

This report discusses the results of two surveys that investigated the participation of students with limited English proficiency (LEP) in Minnesota's Basic Requirements Exams. In the first survey, 13 school districts answered questions about the participation of students with LEP in Minnesota's Basic Standards Tests. Ten of the districts reported…

The Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University conducted a large-scale analysis of the impact of charter schools on student performance. The center's data covered 65-70% of the nation's charter schools. Although results varied by state, 17% of the charter school students have significantly higher math results than …

Although pair programming has proved its usefulness in teaching and learning programming skills, it is difficult to assess the individual roles and abilities of students whilst programming in pairs. (Note that within this manuscript, the term assessment refers to evaluating individual student performance.) Assessing only the outcomes of a pair…

Admissions committees and researchers around the globe have used diligence and imagination to develop and implement various screening measures with the ultimate goal of predicting future clinical and professional performance. What works for predicting future job performance in the human resources world and in most of the academic world may not,…

This work compares the results of three assessment systems used in two Spanish universities (the "Universidad Politecnica de Madrid" and the "Universidad Catolica de Avila"): the traditional system based on final examinations, continuous assessment with periodic tests and a proposed system (specially designed for heterogeneous…

Background: National curriculum assessment (NCA) in England has been in place for nearly 20 years. It has its origins in a political desire to regulate education, holding schools accountable. However, its form and nature also reflect educational and curriculum concerns and technical assessment issues. Purpose: The aim of the article is to provide…

Over the past several decades, a wider range of assessment strategies has gained prominence in classrooms, including complex assessment items such as individual or group projects, student journals and other creative writing tasks, graphic/artistic representations of knowledge, clinical interviews, student presentations and performances, peer- and…

At one of a series of hearings on H.R. 6, the Elementary and Secondary Education Amendments of 1993, several experts discussed issues related to national assessment, assessment in Chapter 1, and state efforts to develop new forms of assessment. Eleanor Chelimsky, Assistant Comptroller General for Program Evaluation and Methodology of the General…

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…

Dutch secondary schools offer educational programs on four tracks, vocational and nonvocational. At the end of each program, a final examination is administered, with the test content areas determined by law, by the schools, and by the student's individual program. Assessment is by means of a written, nationally administered exam and…

The final chapter of a seven-section report that examined the assessment of occupational competence, this chapter explores the key patterns and commonalities that have emerged from the study of occupational competency assessment. The chapter begins with a synthesis of the state of the art of competency definition and measurement under four topic…

Evaluation plays an important role in the academic career of students and instructors. It is a concept that is repeated throughout the academic year and one that determines future roles and placement of students. This report is a summary of the findings of the first two years of a five-year research study of evaluation conducted at Edinburgh…

The research project's objectives were: survey of the field, development of new approaches and techniques, investigation of factors in the employment of the trainable mentally retarded (TMR), development of objective measurement of work adjustment behaviors, selective application of new methods, and development of a model vocational evaluation…

This report presents the results of a survey of state directors of special education from the 50 regular states and 6 unique states, which examined several aspects of state-level educational accountability systems and their inclusion of students with disabilities. Specific sections address: students with disabilities and standards-based reform;…