Summit Public Schools (SPS), a California-based charter school network established in 2003, is widely promoted nationally as a success story to be emulated. A policy environment friendly to charter schools and digital technologies, together with hundreds of millions of dollars in technology industry contributions, enabled its growth and its…

Legislators mandated transition education for students with disabilities to improve their post-school outcomes. Each student with an IEP should have an annual transition plan at or before his or her 16th birthday. IDEA mandated the utilization of age appropriate transition assessment to develop students' post-secondary transition goals based on…

This paper responds to the demand generated among competency-based program participants and administrators for definitions of "competence" and new assessment techniques and instruments for its measurement. Discussion centers on three aspects of assessment: (1) the identification and definition of competencies relevant to life and work…

Two factor analytic studies of the Internal-External Control Scale, a forced-choice questionnaire, were carried out. In the first study, separate analyses for samples of male and female college students each yielded the following two factors: (1) generalized personal control, reflecting a belief about ability versus luck as a determinant of…

Giving tests and assigning grades are stated to be important aspects of teachers' responsibility for facilitating student learning. Opposition to testing is discussed, objections are criticized, and beneficial consequences of evaluation are listed. It is maintained that tests do not cause cheating, or excessive discouragement, competition, or…

A study using two types of analyses to examine the validity of student ratings of faculty is described. The first analysis examined faculty ratings in terms of how high-achieving sections of courses rate their instructors in contrast with how low-achieving sections rate their instructors to determine if those teachers who advance their students…

The fact that college grades are poor predictors of future job performance is a cause for concern. A more important issue is assessment, for course grades cannot measure many of the work-relevant skills that a college education provides. Selection tests are one effort to identify and establish those characteristics of applicants that predict…

This study explored possible predictors of College Education Achievement Project students' success in college. Based on standardized test scores and teacher recommendations a multiple regression correlation was run with the grade point average of the first fifteen hours of regular college work. Correlations were run on male, female and combined…

This paper is a review of opinion and research concerning the objectivity and relevance of grades and grade averages as measures and as predictors of success. As measures they are ambiguous, reflecting differences in sex, basic temperament, instructors, departments, institutions, as much as levels of competence. And as a predictor of…

In spring 1992, a mid-term assessment of English 10 students was conducted at Golden West College, in California, in order to compare four course placement methods. English 10, "Writing Essentials," is a nontransferrable course which focuses on paragraph writing and grammar review in order to prepare students for entry into English 100.…