According to accreditation and professional bodies, evaluation and grading are a high priority in counselor education. Specifications grading, an evaluative tool, can be used to increase grading rigor. This article describes the components of specifications grading and applies the framework of specifications grading to a counseling theories course.

This qualitative investigation examines the use of behavioral agreements by Senior Student Affairs Officers and Counseling Center Directors to manage student mental health concerns and minimize behavior that poses threats to campus communities. Six pairs of Senior Student Affairs Officers and Counseling Center Directors at the same institution…

In state needs assessment meetings held in late June 2008, the leadership of two Central Region state departments of education, South Dakota and Missouri, asked Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Central to determine how the states in the region evaluate their supplemental educational service (SES) providers. Specifically, these SEA staff…

Contract grading has achieved some prominence in our field as a practice associated with critical pedagogy. In this context we describe a hybrid grading contract where students earn a course grade of B based not on our evaluation of their writing quality but solely on their completion of the specified activities. The contract lists activities…

This essay responds to Jane Danielewicz's and Peter Elbow's recent piece on contract grading in "College Composition and Communication" (December 2009). I discuss the similarities of their approach to my own contract process, finding that we share a quantitative/performative method for grading. I also explore our differences. While they guarantee…

A brief criticism of the unreliability of gain scores from standardized tests as a means of measuring the effectiveness of a performance contract. (AK)

Comments and points representing "lore" rather than proven facts are presented in this outline to summarize some of the issues raised by critics and proponents of various methods of grading rather than presenting a summary of research. Pro and con arguments are those typically advanced by proponents or detractors and are not presented as facts.…

This speech discusses the planning for and the implementation of the O.E.O. performance contracting experiments. The author argues that it was not performance contracting, but the O.E.O. experiment which failed. The author blames this failure not so much on the poor evaluation design, but rather on the number of interface problems which arose…

Provides a course contract, syllabus, and evaluation sheet for use in a college technical communication course. (MH)

In the Tamalpais High School District the performance requirements for the superintendent serve as the basis for the major performance requirements for his administrative staff. (Author)

This report attempts to cut through the rhetoric of both the opponents and the proponents of performance contracting and to bring the main issues into focus. The report (1) describes different kinds of contracts; (2) discusses testing problems; (3) gives a description of the Texarkana and Banneker elementary school projects; (4) provides sample…

This paper describes a planning cost model for estimating the comparable replication cost of an educational program for use in evaluating alternative programs and planning future programs. The conceptual and methodological bases of cost analysis are explored and the shortcomings of present methods for comparison and evaluation of educational…

Results from a two-year study of the individualized contract plan (ICP) approach to faculty evaluation indicate this is a workable method of performance evaluation for allied health faculty. The ICP was found to be individualized, systematic, flexible, and objective. Five major recommendations were made regarding the continued use of the ICP and…

Summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of contract grading as revealed through current research. A sample contract syllabus which was used in a basic university speech communication course is included. (MH)