In 2007 Georgia instituted a flexibility policy through which school districts enter into performance contracts with the state, receiving waivers from state rules, provisions, and guidelines in exchange for agreeing to meet annual accountability targets. The performance contracts are intended to incentivize innovations that increase achievement…

These are the appendixes for the report, "District Changes in Student Achievement and Local Practice under Georgia's District and School Flexibility Policy." Five appendixes are included in the document: (1) About the study; (2) Data and methods; (3) Supporting analysis; (4) Survey instrument; and (5) Interview protocol. [For the full…

Performance contracting, and some reservations thereto, are discussed as related to the present movement. The reservations are related to: (1) Accountability; (2) Individualized Teaching; (3) Extrinsic Rewards; (4) Testing; and (5) The Corruption of Both Language and the Process of Education. (DB)

Urges educators to reject the mechanization of learning implicit in accountability systems and to work instead toward the humanization of American schools. (DD)

Discusses a program started in Duluth, Minnesota, in which parents have the option of selecting the kind of education they want for their children and in which both parents and students contract for achieving a desired educational step in a specified period of time. (DN)

In higher education especially, the obsolescence of skills, knowledge, and competencies in teaching dictates the need for continuous staff development. Given the assumption that superior and innovative instruction that motivates student learning can shape institutional identity as well, this book provides selected readings that advocate a…

Composed of articles recently published in "Educational Technology" magazine, this volume in the review series focuses on teacher education and educational technology. Articles are included which cover defining the role of teacher education and of teachers, differentiated staffing, educational accountability, performance contracting,…

Discussion of the nature of student-teacher contracts pertaining to academic work to be performed by the student and evaluated by the teacher covers a wide range of related issues in this article. The nature of contracts, evaluation procedures, instructional materials, community attitudes, and the individualization of instruction are commented on…

A distinction among evaluation, measurement and reports of terminal behavior is presented. For the purposes of evaluation, any response to a speech performance provides useful feedback to the communicator. In addition to the teacher's evaluation of the performance against "established standards", it is argued that a teacher's subjective responses…

The document reproduces the eleven keynote addresses given at a conference on special education. The presentations centered on such topics and issues as accountability, relevance, integration of subsystems, individualized instruction, diagnostic-prescriptive teaching, systems analysis, instructional technology, differentiated staffing, creativity…

These conference proceedings contain addresses and comments of some 42 participants. Papers are grouped in three major sections: (1) the status of individualized foreign language instruction today, (2) small-group presentations, and (3) viewpoints on change. The papers cover a wide variety of topics including a review of the state-of-the-art,…

The central assumption in domain-referenced testing (DRT), as presented in this book, is that a domain may be determined which adequately represents a particular universe of knowledge. After a domain has been established, the technological and practical problem of using domain-referenced testing must be solved. This book contains a collection of…