Performance-based accountability systems (PBASs), which link incentives to measured performance as a means of improving services to the public, have gained popularity. While PBASs can vary widely across sectors, they share three main components: goals, incentives, and measures. Research suggests that PBASs influence provider behaviors, but little…

This report presents findings stemming from the first-year evaluation of the Texas Educator Excellence Grant (TEEG) program, one of several statewide performance incentive programs in Texas. In June 2006, Governor Perry and the 79th Texas Legislature created the Governor's Educator Excellence Award Program, one component of which is the TEEG…

Studied content domain, format, and level of inquiry as factors contributing to the large variation in student performance across open-ended measures. Results for more than 1,200 eighth graders do not support the hypothesis that tasks similar in content, format, and level of inquiry would correlate higher with each other than with measures…

Two studies involving 368 elementary and high school students and 29 readers were conducted to investigate reader consistency, score reliability, and reader time requirements of three hands-on science performance tasks. Holistic scores were as reliable as analytic scores, and there was a high correlation between them after they were disattenuated…

This study investigated three factors that may contribute to the large variation in student performance across open-ended measures. These factors are content domain, format (whether the task required only pencil and paper or involved a hands-on manipulation of equipment), and level of inquiry (whether the task guided the student toward the…

Estimates of the costs of including hands-on measures of science skills in a large-scale assessment program were derived from a field trial involving more than 2,000 fifth and sixth graders. Results suggest that complexity makes hands-on assessments more than three times as expensive as open-ended writing assessments. (SLD)

This report presents findings from the second year of a multi-year evaluation of the Texas Educator Excellence Grant (TEEG) program and background information about the design and implementation of the District Awards for Teacher Excellence (DATE) program. The TEEG and DATE programs operating in Texas make up the largest state-funded performance…

In 1991-92 Vermont initiated a statewide portfolio assessment program in mathematics and writing in grades 4 and 8. An evaluation of the program found mixed results--although the portfolio scores were unreliable for individual or school-level reporting and teachers had concerns about implementation, the assessment had marked positive effects on…

For the past five years, Vermont has been developing an innovative statewide assessment system in which portfolios of student work in mathematics and writing are a key element. The use of mathematics portfolios, particularly in elementary school, is a novel aspect of the assessment system. This study examines the elementary school mathematics…

This study explored fourth-grade teachers' understanding of mathematical problem solving, an aspect of the Vermont portfolio assessment program that has been largely ignored. Teachers' conceptions of problem solving, their knowledge of problem-solving strategies, their selection and evaluation of problem-solving tasks, and their instructional…