The purpose of this study was to describe how states in the REL Central Region (Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming) evaluate teacher preparation programs and planned changes for evaluation. Publicly available documents were reviewed and interviews were conducted with state education agency representatives…

The role of performance evaluation and testing in the development of an operational accountability system for urban public schools is discussed. Management science techniques and concepts and econometric methods are used to specify an accountability system, determine its data requirements, and evaluate alternative measures of systems performance.…

Competency-based vocational education is defined and broken down into ten basic components (e.g., developing occupational inventories, needed materials, and lesson plans; analyzing occupational survey data and existing materials; updating the task analysis; and revising). Pointers for checking the system and moving it to higher levels of…

To enable vocational educators to evaluate programs and account for the use of allocated resources, this monograph describes a rational decision-making process based on the Input, Process, Product, Impact conceptual structure for occupational education. In a rational management process, all management behavior is consistent with specified…

This document, which highlights the efforts of the National Institute for Literacy to pilot the development of state literacy accountability systems in four states, outlines the components, operation, and importance of state accountability systems and discusses considerations in developing a systems approach to planning and implementing a quality…

A fourth year study of project SAM (Student Accountability Model), initially an effort to provide a system of procedures for collecting data on community college occupational students during and after their stay in college, was expanded to devise a system for incorporating nonoccupational students into the SAM model. The primary objective of the…

In a study designed to identify information needs of persons who make management decisions about public school vocational education programs in Texas and who develop ways to meet these needs through use of a management information system, particular emphasis was given to the information needs of management within the Texas Education Agency…

What has been learned from the study of relationships between abilities and outcomes learned in college and those abilities as they are performed at work is summarized to infer principles that should inform a national system to assess the higher order thinking and communications skills of college graduates in support of the National Education Goal…

This long-range system entails the development of programs in the areas of educational goals and objectives, accounting and budgeting, and curriculum design. Ongoing programs of implementation and evaluation are an important feature. (DLG)

Lessons from the 18-year institutional experience of Alverno College in Milwaukee (Wisconsin) with assessment for the improvement and verification of student learning are summarized. Principles are described that should inform a national assessment system with the dual purposes of improvement and accountability by incorporating the following key…

New Jersey has taken steps to improve vocational education programs and services in response to two state reports and the measurement and evaluation requirements of the reauthorized Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-392). Among state initiatives is the Occupational Competency Project, a study of 100…

Too many educational researchers have been too attentive to innovations and too inattentive to how educators organize to cope with them. The use of anthropological concepts and methods in analyzing the educator subculture could improve planning and implementation of innovations. A study of the attempt to develop a variant of a planning,…