The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) requires states and the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) to define and determine whether schools are making adequate yearly progress (AYP) toward meeting the goal of 100 percent academic proficiency. To address tribes' needs for cultural preservation, NCLBA allows tribal groups to…

The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs has established interdisciplinary research on policy problems as the core of its educational program. A major part of this program is the policy research project, in the course of which three faculty members, each from a different profession or discipline, and about 15 graduate students with diverse…

At the request of the government of the Netherlands Antilles for assistance in the field of workers' education, the United Nations Development Program and the International Labor Office agreed to implement a three months mission in 1972 for an expert to advise and assist the government and the trade unions of the Netherlands Antilles to develop a…

State education agencies are in increasing agreement regarding the basic principles that should underlie state educational assessment programs, though some areas of divergent opinion remain. The agencies generally accept the ideas that comparisons between states will be made, that assessment programs should serve multiple purposes, that meaningful…

The Office of Instructional and Management Services at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, has been involved in the development and administration of several evaluation programs that contain an assessment component. These programs are described. (MLW)

The purpose of this monograph is to stimulate reflective inquiry by educators into their work as policy makers, program designers, and evaluators of inservice education programs. Its context is a series of case studies of evaluations performed in Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Four essays are presented. The first…

This report discusses the outcomes of a survey that questioned states about their development of alternate assessments for students with disabilities who cannot participate, even with accommodations, in state or district-wide assessment programs. In the survey, states were asked about a variety of developmental features of their alternate…

This report discusses the outcomes of a June 11-12, 1999, forum that addressed alternative assessments and gray areas in large-scale assessments for students with disabilities. The forum included 161 representatives from 42 state departments of education, 3 large school districts, 1 territory, and the Department of Defense Dependent Schools. Five…

This study presents a longitudinal and intertextual analysis of educational policymaking activity in California over a 10-year period to identify factors that supported local policy implementation in a shifting political climate. Analysis reveals the essential nature of coherence, capacity building, and changed practices in building an alternative…

The objectives of this report are stated in three broad questions that the research committee was asked to examine. (1) What are the principal lines of research being pursued at the present time that are significantly strengthening the scientific foundations of education, and what are some of their possible contributions to American education? Are…

The School Planning, Evaluation, and Communication System (SPECS) is an overall design for districtwide program assessment and development. It is both a way of interrelating planning and evaluation of individual programs and a way of comparing the outcomes of all district programs with the district's community-defined educational goals. Component…

In the context of findings from the recent nationwide studies and reports on the status of education, this paper focuses on the program assessment, instructional planning, and resource allocation efforts of the Rochester (New York) School District. The first phase, the Rochester Assessment Project, began with informal meetings between the…

This document, the final report of a project assessing the general status of English language training (ELT) in Central America, includes an overview of the process, general recommendations, and country-specific information and recommendations for training and policy development. The purpose was to assess the potential effects of the ELT situation…

Informational, diagnostic, prescriptive functions of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are best served by governance structure composed of federal, state, and local members and a standing technical advisory board. Structure protects NAEP from undue federal influence and special interest groups, builds bridges to educators and…

The 1990s show distinct changes from the 1960s in terms of the views held by education practitioners, policymakers, and the public concerning the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Developments such as the national education goals, the prospect of voluntary national education standards, and the possibility of a national system of…