Extension professionals often assess community needs to determine programs and target audiences. Data can be collected through surveys, focus group and individual interviews, meta-analysis, systematic observation, and other methods. Knowledge gaps are identified, and programs are designed to resolve the deficiencies. However, do Extension…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the characteristics of teacher incentive pay programs used by midsize to large school districts in Missouri. Design/methodology/approach: This study primarily used the Teacher Compensation Programs (TCP) survey data. The TCP survey was developed by the authors to understand the nature and…

Using data from a survey of superintendents in four states, this study explored how contextual factors and the real and perceived stringency of accountability measures influence the attention superintendents pay to the different roles comprising their work. A major concern was the extent to which stringent accountability was associated with…

Increasingly, teacher educators recommend authentic, performance-related measures for evaluating teacher candidates. Nevertheless, more states are requiring teachers to pass high-stakes, minimum-competency exams. This study examined the relation between teacher candidate scores on authentic measures and their scores on certification exams required…

The difficulty in education to determine causality between means and ends brings various issues and variables to the discussion about the antecedents of school effectiveness. Although teachers' level of professional development is clearly among the factors influencing student outcomes, little is known about the extent to which teachers connect…

This questionnaire is used in the Educational Quality Assessment Program in the State of Pennsylvania. Designed to be filled out by school administrators, it requests information about staff size, enrollment size, library books available, hours of paraprofessionals, quality of housing in school district, number of guidance personnel, and holding…

This questionnaire is used in the Educational Quality Assessment Program in the state of Pennsylvania. It includes checklists for the following kinds of information concerning teachers: locale, stability, college, mother's education, father's occupation, attitudes relating to professional recognition, career interests, salary, length of service,…

This questionnaire, used in the Educational Quality Assessment Program in Pennsylvania, was designed to be filled out by school administrators. It requests information about staff size, enrollment size, library books available, hours of paraprofessionals, and quality of housing in school district. It also includes a checklist to show the extent of…

The use of assessment information by school administrators involved in a statewide assessment program was investigated. Data from 93 superintendents were analyzed to determine the relationships between information usage and perceptions of assessment information relevance, problem identification, and origin of superintendent. Local dissemination of…

This questionnaire is used in the Educational Quality Assessment Program in the State of Pennsylvania. It includes checklists for the following kinds of information from teachers: locale, stability, college, mother's education, father's occupation, attitudes relating to professional recognition, career interests, salary, length of service, and…

This study analyses the impact of democratic decentralisation on the chances of socially excluded groups to participate in newly created local governance institutions--Panchayati Raj Institutions--in three Indian states. This institutional reform included a quota for the disadvantaged--women and lower castes--to ensure their effective…

A school climate questionnaire was developed and administered to 1,959 students in a sample of 24 Massachusetts high schools. Related questionnaires were administered in eight of these schools to 500 teachers, administrators, and support staff. School climate is defined as feelings and opinions about various aspects of the school and how it…

Approximately 20,000 eighth-and eleventh-grade students in Texas were tested on nine career education objectives; (1) career planning and decision making; (2) occupational information; (3) job acquisition and retention; (4) work attitudes; (5) human relations skills; (6) self evaluation; (7) personal responsibilities; (8) economic factors; and (9)…

A manual for assessing the effectiveness of a secondary school, taking differences in the school's resources into account, is presented. The Pennsylvania State Board of Education established the Bureau of Educational Quality Assessment which developed a measurement package in Phase I. Field tests were conducted on grade 11 students in 1968 in 100…

Reviews results of a study that was conducted to determine the level of organizational commitment of high school library media specialists in Ohio and to identify factors likely to produce or impede its development. Use of the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire and the Media Specialists Questionnaire is described. (27 references) (LRW)