In Great Britain, apprenticeship is regarded as the traditional means of entry into skilled occupations. Covers some apprenticeship characteristics, arguments for and against apprenticeships, efforts made by Industrial Training Boards to improve the quality of apprentice training, and training criteria that must be met for government funding of…

Guidance is provided to organizational personnel in establishing a means for assessing the effectiveness of a new performance appraisal system. (TA)

The ratio of rehabilitant earnings to the mean earnings of those persons in the general population with similar demographic characteristics has been proposed as a meaningful criterion of rehabilitant placement suitability. The Cooper-Rubin index was developed to generate a relative placement suitability score for each rehabilitant. (Author)

Do proficiency tests show whether students are gifted? Are programs for the talented properly funded? Confusion among programs for gifted students indicates that guidelines should be established, including weighing the gifted label for each program and linking programs to special talents. References included. (CJH)

The author states that this is the time for the reform of teacher education. It is not a time to abandon teacher education by providing certification to nontrained teachers. It really is a time for the nation and each state to pay for quality teacher education. (CT)

This article reviews studies of the effectiveness of continuing education in the health professions, notes weaknesses in the continuing education system, and suggests strategies for improving it. (Author/CT)

Although physical fitness has become a way of life for many adults, most American children are "physically underdeveloped" by the standards of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. The physical educator's role and a plan for improving physical education programs are discussed. (DF)

Discusses the outlier paradigm, then (1) reviews some major studies in reading program effectiveness at the elementary school level that have followed the paradigm (2) synthesizes findings from these studies into what they suggest are the key elements of effective reading programs (3) offers some critical commentary on the studies in question and…

This report of the Detroit Public Schools compiles data analysis of prekindergarten children's entry level skills, a 1-month follow-up assessment, and an end-of-the-year skills evaluation. The report contains information on the growth and development of 3- and 4-year-old prekindergarten students in the Michigan School Readiness Program and Head…

NCATE (2002) requires the measurement of knowledge, skills, and dispositions as part of its accreditation requirements for teacher education programs (Standard 1) and the use of unit assessment systems to aggregate and analyse data with a view toward program improvement (Standard 2). Data must indicate that candidates meet professional, state, and…

Describes the Instructional Quality Inventory (IQI) for formative evaluation of systematically developed instructional programs, its classification scheme for objectives and test items, and procedures for checking programs for adequacy, consistency and presentation. Accounts of two studies are given to support the usefulness of the IQI. (EAO)

Describes a four phase strategy used to identify, critique and improve an existing student services program consisting of collecting information, exchanging information among service units and faculty, publishing a student services handbook, and evaluating existing service effectiveness. (Author/JAC)

The problems of co-op education programs, analyzed from an administrative point of view, focused on apathy in business and among students, lack of program growth and poor image, poor administrator skills, and neglect of programs. Suggestions are offered on using marketing tests and strategies to improve programs. (Author/KMF)

The organization of monitoring and evaluation of public sector programs in South Asia is described, and the ways in which information from the studies is actually used are discussed. Reasons why there has been so little interest in evaluating the performance and maintenance of public sector programs are considered. (SLD)

Discusses the Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Head Start Quality and Expansion that will conduct an in-depth study to make recommendations on how to ensure that all Head Start programs provide high-quality services. Examines legislation having an impact on Head Start programs, including efforts to reduce the federal budget. (TJQ)