This study examines teacher collaboration as an evolving service option for special needs students, and investigated the effects of teacher collaboration through the use of action research. The study compared student performance indicators in collaborative and noncollaborative structures and evaluated the validity of variables selected for…

This document, part of a series of papers which describe the assessment of student learning in various school curriculum areas from prekindergarten through grade 12, focuses on the assessment of student learning in fine arts education. After an overview of current curriculum goals in fine arts education, subsequent sections describe…

Employers and policymakers have traditionally sought to manage skill shortages in technical and other occupations through initiatives predicted in one of two broad definitions of skill: skill-as-input and skill-as-artifact. A weakness of both these perspectives is that focusing on the inputs and outcomes of a labor process obscures or ignores the…

This guidebook is designed to help teachers think about the important role of assessment in guiding students' narrative writing, with an emphasis on the close connections among curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The assessments that are given as examples stem from a long-term collaboration between the Center for Research on Evaluation,…

The role of social awareness in the employment success of adolescents with mild mental retardation was examined in a two-phase study. In phase 1, a set of social awareness descriptors designed to measure the three components of social awareness--sensitivity, insight, and communication--was developed and validated in a five-stage process. In phase…

This study examined the communicative competence of 89 international teaching assistants (ITAs) based on evaluations by undergraduate students. The study was developed to answer two questions: (1) whether the Oral English Proficiency Test, administered by professionals in teaching English as a second language, is a valid instrument for screening…

The essays in this collection are the products of work by more than 100 teachers in the Hudson Valley Portfolio Assessment Project. Teachers spent 3 years learning about, experimenting with, and reflecting on their uses of assessment and its relations to student achievement. In the opening three essays, Giselle Martin-Kniep discusses what she…

The Indiana Workforce Proficiency Panel is responsible for identifying a common set of essential and technical skills for success in occupational areas and issuing Certificates of Technical Achievement. Incumbent workers and students can earn certificates in seven areas that are in high demand in Indiana's labor market and offer high-paying jobs…

This book reviews alternative assessment. Suggestions include portfolios, interviews, observations, journals, and tests utilizing various rubrics. This book contains suggestions and materials that teachers can use to assess students' progress in problem solving, reasoning, and communication. Many performance tasks and problem-specific rubrics for…

This book is designed to help teachers, especially secondary school teachers, create and use performance assessments. The basic concept is that teachers must plan backwards from outcomes of education to shift the paradigm of curriculum-instruction-testing to a new and more fluid design. The book presents a wide variety of assessment approaches…

This book is a guide to the development and use of performance tasks and rubrics in the upper elementary school mathematics classroom. It contains a rationale for, and a discussion of strengths and limitations of, performance tasks to assess student achievement and progress in mathematics. A field-tested process is offered for developing…

Teachers' reactions to the administration and scoring of the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program tests (MSPAP) were studied, focusing on their direct and indirect exposure to tasks and evaluative criteria through the experience of scoring the MSPAP. Since its inception in 1991, the MSPAP has been scored in-state by certified teachers…

This report presents the results of a review of Florida's teacher certification system, administered by the Department of Education. The review addressed: (1) how Florida should regulate teachers to ensure that they are professionally qualified and possess the credentials, knowledge, and skills to provide a quality education; (2) who should…

This document contains four papers from a symposium on evaluation in human resource development (HRD). The first paper, "HRD Evaluation as the Catalyst for Organizational Learning" (Hallie Preskill), argues that HRD practitioners must stop considering evaluation a periodic event focused on a narrow set of variables and begin viewing it…

This document contains two papers from a symposium on enhancing team performance. "The Impact of Organizational Sub-Cultures on Information Sharing: A Manufacturing Company's Dilemma" (Toni Powell) reports on a qualitative study that examined the subcultures of a company involved in significant change and noted the effects of conflicting…