This article introduces the agency theory to the field of higher education research. By applying agency theory to the inter-organisational relationship between government and higher education institutions, it is possible to illustrate general problems facing control and governance in a more theoretical and analytical way. The conceptual arsenal…

This article focuses on teachers' views of assessment, specifically the common barriers and benefits of assessing students in physical education. Physical educators were asked about the benefits and barriers of using assessment in physical education. These teachers expressed the following barriers: grading students on skill levels and abilities,…

Teacher collaboration is a powerful form of professional learning. One focus for collaborative efforts is designing assessments. When teachers design assessments, give each other feedback through peer reviews, evaluate student work, and plan together for improvement, they are engaged in highly effective professional development. Assessments have…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to improve assessment and feedback processes in the training practices of very small firms, thereby improving the firms' human capital. Design/methodology/approach: The paper reviews research and practice on effective assessment and feedback. Findings: Based on this paper, human resources are increasingly seen…

This article reports on findings obtained from an online survey answered by 97 foreign language department chairs. The Web survey was pilot tested for validity and reliability and obtained a Cronbach's reliability coefficient of .80. The results suggest that student learning outcomes assessment in American undergraduate foreign language education…

Effective school leadership is key to students' academic success. But the development of effective school leadership has been seriously hampered by the lack of technically sound tools to assess and monitor leaders' performance. With support from The Wallace Foundation, a team from Vanderbilt has been developing such an assessment system, and this…

A recent employer survey sponsored by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills found that the skills new job entrants most need for success in the workplace--oral and written communication, time management, critical thinking, problem solving, personal accountability, and the ability to work effectively with others--are the areas in which recent…

This inquiry uses teacher-candidate critiques of science lessons as a means of evaluating the effectiveness of an instructor's pedagogical approach to promote teacher candidate understanding of the nature of science (NOS) in a science methods course. Three cohorts of teacher candidates enrolled in a middle-years teacher education program were…

"Data collected from eligibility assessments need to be useful and connected across all areas of service delivery." The content and flow of information have enormous implications for practice. Professionals are challenged because they lack functional information needed to create useful goals and objectives, implement effective…

This study explored the validity of the Motivational Systems Theory (MST) as a measure of performance of college students pursuing business degrees and the level of academic performance attained across gender and race lines. This goal is achieved by investigating the relationships between motivational strategies, biological factors, responsive…

This article argues that if multimodal and new literacies are to become common practices in schools, they have to be included in both school and provincial/state large-scale assessment programmes. Building on current criterion-referenced testing in Newfoundland and Labrador which assesses a range of literacies (viewing, reading, writing,…

This study used both quantitative and qualitative methods of content analysis to examine principal evaluation instruments and state and professional standards for principals in school districts located in a mid-Atlantic state in the USA. The purposes of this study were to (a) determine the degrees of emphasis that are placed upon leadership and…

A study was conducted to begin a process of validating hypothesized causes of local item dependence (LID) in large-scale performance assessments. Data for the study are item level scores from 26 science tasks from the 1993 edition of the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program. Causes of high LID were hypothesized from studies by Ferrara et…

The articles in this volume explore various conceptions of assessment and evaluation and the ramifications of these perspectives in a number of countries across many diverse art educational settings. Kit Grauer introduces the theme in "An Editorial: Values and Evaluation." In "International Perspectives on Evaluation and Assessment…

This book provides practitioners with an introduction to alternative assessment that is comprehensive, practical, and to the degree allowed by the printed page, interactive. Theoretical and practical aspects of assessment are discussed in a way that suggests the process-oriented nature of alternative assessment rather than a fixed end point.…