This document consists of articles 1 through 14 of volume 6 of "Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation": (1) "Seven Myths about Literacy in the United States" (Jeff McQuillan); (2) "Implementing Performance Assessment in the Classroom" (Amy Brualdi); (3) "Some Evaluation Questions" (William Shadish); (4) "Item Banking" (Lawrence Rudner); (5)…

This issue reviews five publications that provide a sampling of current perspectives on the preparation of school leaders. Joseph Murphy's "Preparation for the School Principalship: The United States' Story" traces the history of leadership preparation programs in the United States from the 19th century to the present. David L. Clark's "Searching…

NAEP (National Assessment of Education Progress) has developed its first set of assessment tasks for measuring student achievement in theatre. These tasks draw on a wide range of dramatic forms and use both paper-and-pencil and performance tasks. Sections in this serial issue include: "The Importance of Theatre"; "The Theatre…

What educators around the country are finding out as they work with portfolios is reviewed, focusing on the classroom. Portfolios are purposeful, collaborative, self-reflective collections of student work generated during the process of instruction. Although they can be used in any academic discipline, portfolios are widely used in English and…

The articles in this volume explore various conceptions of assessment and evaluation and the ramifications of these perspectives in a number of countries across many diverse art educational settings. Kit Grauer introduces the theme in "An Editorial: Values and Evaluation." In "International Perspectives on Evaluation and Assessment…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1998 Civics Assessment measured student knowledge, intellectual and participatory skills, and civic dispositions at the fourth grade level. This publication describes fourth graders' performance based on 30 questions from the fourth-grade assessment. Twenty-three of the thirty questions were…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1998 Civics Assessment measured students' knowledge, their intellectual and participatory skills, and their civic dispositions at the 12th-grade level. This publication describes 12th graders performance on 38 questions from the 12th-grade assessment. Thirty-one of the thirty-eight questions…

Standards-based systems generally require students to meet the performance level specified in order to proceed or be certified. This issue of the Oregon School Study Council (OSSC) Bulletin surveys the types of standards currently being proposed. After an introductory chapter, chapter 2 describes eight components of standards, illustrated with a…

Reflecting some of the emerging issues sustaining debate in secondary school literature instruction and writing instruction, this newsletter presents articles that discuss the impact of E. D. Hirsch's book "Cultural Literacy,""authentic discourse," and collaborative classroom research. Articles in the newsletter are:…

When evaluating student performance, teachers often find themselves in a quandary. Teachers must judge, sometimes with firm frankness, while also demonstrating caring. Fortunately, assessment in schools is moving away from judgment to embrace the notion of teachers and students sitting beside one another during the teaching, learning, and…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1998 Civics Assessment measured student knowledge, intellectual and participatory skills, and civic dispositions at the eighth grade level. This publication describes eighth graders performance based on 37 questions from the eighth-grade assessment. Thirty of the thirty-seven questions were…

This report presents general criteria for authentic pedagogy, instructional activities rooted in a primary concern for high standards of intellectual quality, as well as more specific standards that can be used to judge the quality of assessment tasks, classroom lessons, and student performance. Examples are given of tasks, lessons, and student…

This journal presents the following articles: "Introduction: Volume 14--Examining Performance" (Marie Cora) "Fair Assessment Practices: Giving Students Equitable Opportunities to Demonstrate Learning" (Linda Suskie); "Assessing Oral Communication at the Community Learning Center Development of the OPT (Oral Proficiency Test)" (JoAnne Hartel and…

These three newsletters for 1998 highlight the following topics and issues. The March newsletter features an article on streamlining the transfer ready model, which includes an equation to find the transfer directed rate and the transfer ready rate. The new transfer ready model is divided into three categories, the beginning cohort, the transfer…

Five articles in this special issue present the approaches to accountability found in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, and Newfoundland, provinces that represent 85% of all Canadian elementary and secondary school students. The articles are then discussed by representatives of four national Canadian educational associations. (SLD)