Since the 1999-2000 school year, TAP: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement (TAP) has been implemented in hundreds of schools across the nation and demonstrated an ability to raise student achievement, improve the quality of instruction and increase the ability of high-need schools to recruit, retain and support effective teachers. The…

Much of modern biology has become increasingly chemical in character. Not surprisingly, students often have trouble understanding key ideas in biology because they lack foundational chemistry ideas. AAAS and BSCS are collaborating to develop and study a curriculum unit that supports students' ability to explain a variety of biological processes…

AAAS and BSCS are collaborating to develop and study a curriculum unit that supports students' ability to explain a variety of biological processes such as growth in chemical terms. The unit provides conceptual coherence between chemical processes in nonliving and living systems through the core idea of atom rearrangement and conservation during…

This study reports the preliminary results from a field test of the College-readiness Performance Assessment System (C-PAS), a large-scale, 6th-12th grade criterion-referenced assessment system that utilizes classroom-embedded performance tasks to measure student progress toward the development of key cognitive skills associated with success in…

A procedure was developed for on-site evaluation of replications of exemplary programs that emphasized the replication of the functions accomplished rather than the processes performed. Program functions are defined as operational purposes. A functional analysis begins with identifying program components; describing them fully; and then listing…

American national standards for the evaluation of educational programs were developed by the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation in 1994. This paper describes the Joint Committee's standard setting process. The Joint Committee is a coalition of professional organizations concerned with the quality of evaluations in education.…

This article introduces a field-test model that was developed within a major curriculum-development effort in Turkey. Part of the National Educational Development Project, the model provides a systematic set of steps in piloting a newly developed curriculum in schools. Development involved three major phases--planning, implementation, and…

This paper reports the results of two semesters of experience using computer-assisted instruction (CAI) to teach topics in program evaluation to undergraduate and graduate psychology students at California State University, Long Beach. (The topics addressed are models of evaluation, evaluability assessment, needs assessment, experimental and…

If being a competent small group problem solver is difficult, it is even more difficult to impart those competencies to others. Unlike athletic coaches who are near their players during the real game, teachers of small group communication are not typically present for on-the-spot coaching when their students are doing their problem solving. That…

The last decade has seen the emergence in the policy arena of a new form of qualitative research, one intended to strenghten its ability to generalize while preserving in-depth description. These multisite qualitative studies address the same research question using similar data collection and analysis procedures in a number of settings. To gain…

Problems connected with school dropouts and illiteracy are discussed. The need for decreasing recidivism and prison populations through educational programs is presented, with data on the costs of not doing so. The use of television as a teaching resource is proposed as a possible solution. A field test was conducted to determine the effects of a…

This paper provides empirical data on two approaches to statistically equate scores derived from the direct assessment of writing. These methods are linear equating and equating based on the general polychotomous form of the Rasch model. Data from the Maryland Functional Writing Test are used to equate scores obtained from two prompts given in…

A review of the research literature on systematic instructional design indicates that few empirically supported guidelines exist for testing materials under development and for improving materials on the basis of feedback from potential learners. In an analysis of 17 textbooks on instructional design, eight specific aspects to be considered in…

Plans for the field-testing and implementation of the Accreditation Plus Model (APM) for evaluation of teacher preparation programs are described. Field-testing is taking place in the Center for Teacher Education Evaluation at Tennessee Technological University (Cookeville). The APM is based on the professional judgment approach to program…

The findings from a series of case studies of nine successful demonstration programs are summarized. The programs, funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission, included child development, vocational education, technology, economic development, and housing. The primary purpose of the case studies was to discover what makes programs successful. A…